The health benefits of drawing, painting, stitching, and other art-making include pain relief for cancer patients, bilateral coordination, fine motor control, self-esteem, language, and analytical skills. Repetitive motions of the hand have been shown to reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure, and free up the mind to do much-needed thinking. Most art is consumed in real-time, in person, with other people. Clay, printmaking, photography, painting, dyeing, and other art processes require spending time away from screens and instant communication, allowing deeper communication with the self and with other people. After a psychologically painful experience, making art can increase emotional intelligence, and can give others a way to read something about that experience in the artwork.
New studies suggest that the arts have a positive cognitive, social, and emotional impact on older adults. Participation in the arts builds social relationships and reduces isolation and loneliness, both risk factors for premature death, especially in elders. It may delay the onset of dementia, and improve cognitive function in those who are already dealing with dementia.
In the UK, doctors have been prescribing art to improve mental and physical health for more than 11 years. In prisons in Britain, hundreds of men embroider pieces to sell or commission, giving them “a small oasis of peace” and “a tactile antidote to the harsh and hard environment”; it began after World War II, with disabled soldiers, and formed the beginning of occupational therapy.
Sewing helps to combat depression, and provides social media connections for people who are uncomfortable being in public. Quilts were made from fabrics that hold meaning, or to give new life to old textiles. Artwork with a story can help both the maker and the viewer process war and social unrest. Boro and kantha and the quilts of Gee’s Bend all make something of nothing, yet a Boro jacket may be passed down through several generations, each one adding layers of patches and stitching and making a valuable possession out of what were once rags. El Anatsui made a powerful statement by sewing together metal strips from liquor bottle tops, found by the thousands on the ground in the town where he lived.
In 2016, a study at Drexel University found that even 45 minutes of artmaking causes a significant lowering of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood. Artmaking is a cost-effective way to reduce anxiety and depression, and relieves pain, anxiety, restlessness and depression for hospital patients.
“Often art is just a call to come together and be with fellow human beings, which is at the root of the individual transformation”. Art is a method to express one’s humanity. (ArtPlace America) We need a place to express our humanity once again.
Kate Dean, MFA is a textile artist and NH Rep for the Surface Design Association. She lives in Greenfield.