Untitled Abstract #2
According to the research published by Upali Nanda, Director of Research, American Art Resources, one study pitted a Van Gogh painting, A Pollock painting, and a landscape photo. The article states, “When the patient’s medication use was charted, it was found that in contrast to the control group, the patients consumed slightly more medication while looking at Pollock’s abstract work, suggesting that the art had made them anxious.”
The article also suggests that the cost difference in medicine between the three paintings was about $30,000 per year. Maybe this means one of an artist’s targeted audience could be medical centers? A different audience for sure, but one just as worthy in the end.
And not only that, I also found this article in Science Daily on a study headed by Girija Kaimal at Drexel University. It suggests that creating your own art activates the reward part of the brain. This is similar to a post I made not too long ago about how that same reward system changes depending on whether a person is looking at an original painting or a photo of a similar subject matter. The end result? It’s worth both creating and owning art just to keep your medicine intake down. Art and medicine do have a link, and maybe knowing that could help you lead a healthier lifestyle.