What Original Art Will Do for You

Forty thousand years ago, human beings crawled into caves under terrible conditions and made art, by torchlight, on rough rock walls. Nobody would have done that if it wasn't crucial to survival. Art has always been what connects us to the spirit world and to each other.

The benefits of living with original art are spiritual, mental, and physical.

Spiritual. Original paintings transmit the energy of their making — unrepeatable moments of creation that exist in no other form. Today’s artist is yesteryear’s shaman, bringing the healing of the spirit world directly to you. A screen cannot give you this. A reproduction cannot hold it. The object itself carries the experience.

Mental. Researchers at King's College London measured cortisol — the stress hormone linked to anxiety, depression, and burnout — in people viewing original paintings versus reproductions of the same paintings. Cortisol dropped 22 percent in viewers of originals. In viewers of copies, 8 percent. Original art calms the mind nearly three times more effectively than a reproduction.

Physical. The same study found that inflammatory proteins linked to heart disease and diabetes dropped 30 percent in people viewing originals. Original art simultaneously engaged the immune system, the nervous system, and the hormonal system — three body systems responding at once. The researchers called this a unique finding. It worked on everyone regardless of personality or background.

Every painting is made by hand, with unique materials that will never exist again. Photographs cannot capture what these surfaces do in changing light. Live with them; feel what they do to you.

Living with original art can extend your life.

The studio is a magical place. This is your personal invitation.