I wanted to create a work of art that would visually remind folks how to take care of their brain and keep it active and sharp and healthy. So here it is. A medical collage of sorts that I created on a 12 x 16 wood board using archival paint, inks, vinyl lettering and my 15 year old medical school anatomy book. Just like you, this artwork is one of a kind and will never again be repeated. Here is what the art means to me: If you can find a way to keep your neuronal interconnections growing, you literally keep your brain younger. Adaptable. Warding off dementia and other age related changes. Here is the way to do it… open-ended thinking. The way to age your brain is simple… label things. Just because we can label something, doesn’t mean we *know* it or understand it… in fact, the labeling of it usually ends our exploration of it. Once we find a name for it, then the possibility it holds is limited to our labeling of it… the fact we think we understand about it becomes the outcome. Labeling collapses possibility. Try to visualize the Universe and come up with a fact about it that covers everything we know and don’t know about it. We can’t know all there is to know about the Universe and collapse it into a fact, that would be to completely ignore the enchantment and mystery of it all. It is completely beyond facts and labels. Can you go into our cells, atoms, the space between atoms, and deeper still, and conceptualize what that looks like and what it all means? It is beyond understanding. You can’t go out far enough, and you can’t focus down small enough and find an answer. Open ended thinking keeps health and healing flowing to your brain. Asking more then answering the questions in your life. Asking “I wonder?”. Can you think of the last day you spent asking more questions then answering questions? For many of us, that day was way back in our childhood. Asking “I wonder.” Just “I wonder?” Not answering… just asking and sitting in the wonderment of it all. This artwork makes the perfect reminder to stop focusing on facts and labels and instead come back to center and remember -- we don't know everything and we don't need to know everything. Maintaining an open minded sense of wonder is what the health of our brain is all about! If you are ready to drop labels and lean into the mystery... this artwork will speak to you! This healing artwork is an original mixed media design on an 12 x 16 wood board using paint, inks, vinyl lettering and my 15 year old medical school anatomy book. It comes framed in an eco-friendly 80% recycled composite black frame, ready to hang, and signed by the artist. To your brain's health! xoxo, Laura
