The relationship between caring and painting

Caring and Painting

 ​Last weekend, I drop in at Starbucks for a moment by accident and found a small Post-it on the corner of one of the walls.

  ​Perhaps someone left a message to anonymous people. Maybe it's because life is boring, maybe it's some kind of intention, it might be some kind of advertisement on the other hand. 

 I don't know the reason or intent, but I'm sure this little blue message makes someone smile and happy for a while. 

 Most of all,  I think that those ideas are also a kind of caring. The word "Caring" has several meanings. The dictionary meaning is as follows. 

  ​An attitude of being considerate, compassionate, and helping someone may be an essential element in our lives as a community.

 ​Like a small note on Starbucks, if you gave someone a little comfort and made their day smile, it would have started from an attitude of compassion and consideration for others.

 Caring requires a lot of energy and effort. You have to share the time, resources and materials that you might use for myself and spend it for someone else. You have to think from the other person's point of view and fill in the gaps. It is an act of listening to and helping others for their daily needs. 

 Recently, raising small guinea pigs has made me rethink about the definition of Caring for them. It's not easy to take care of these tiny and poorly trained animals. Because it shouldn't end with just being cute. I need to help keep precious creatures healthy and happy in our homes. Daily replenishment of clean water and an unlimited supply of hay. Because I have to pay attention to hygiene, the bedding is cleaned and put on a new one every day. Like humans, guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C in their body, so I have to cut fruits such as carrots, strawberries containing vitamin C every day or feed them vitamin C supplements for guinea pigs. Additionally the cavy are sensitive to temperature and humidity, and upper respiratory tract infections often occur when a suitable environment is not given.

  Also, do not let water get into their ears or nose while bathing. The water that enters does not come out. Even when clipping toenails, it is difficult to clearly identify the boundaries between the toenails, nerves, and blood vessels and make mistakes. It's nice when they are actively playing, but when they seem to rest or sleep too often, I worry it.

  ​Caring for a small animal made me feel like a new nerve cell had been created in my body. I became nervous, worried, and concerned about things I never cared about before. And I came to think of the environment from their point of view and make an effort to improve it. This is in fact the basis of caring.

  And, strangely, the caring and painting seem to be different yet strangely similar.

 The patterns that I am concerned about while drawing are similar. I'm concerned when the picture shows lower performance than I expected. Even if I put on a high performance, I worry about what this means. For example, I am satisfied, but I wonder if garbage could not have been created without consideration and compassion. 

 And after drawing a picture with worry and apprehension like the empath and sensitive person, the picture touches something like a small note from Starbucks.

 I always worry a lot while I draw because I know the attribues of caring and the healing effect of painting. 

 ​In fact, artistic actions and works have had an impact on the treatment process of diseases, and are often proven through research papers.

 ​The view that art can benefit patient recovery is generally accepted nowadays, said Michael Mullins, co-author of a recent study on hospital art in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Health and Well-being and a professor at Copenhagen’s University of Aalborg. “It is also documented that art can reduce the experience of pain through distracting the patient’s attention.”

  ​Art is also not limited to hospitals, but it is playing a role in soothing and treating the pain of modern people who have lost their identity because they are tied to the framework of everyday life and social roles. In other words, they are responsible for taking care of their hearts.

 ​Art has played a role in providing a world-aware perspective that interprets the suffering of human life or taking care of one's life as a way of changing life.

  According to Schopenhauer, art is the essence of human life, and it plays a role of self-care that ethically changes our lives from the phenomenon of suffering by giving us insight into the source of suffering. ​The art of life can be said to have the role of self-care, transforming life by creatively accepting pain and strengthening the will to live.

  ​As a German philosopher said long ago, art as caring to find meaning and heal in the pain and adversity of life is always with us.