Status Updates From Arte como Terapia

Art can save us time—and save our lives—through opportune and visceral reminders of balance and goodness that we should never presume we know enough about already.

It would be understandable if a person who was at heart sincere and good, whose arrogance was only a habit built up to protect a vulnerable part of themselves, should, as they contemplated the moon jar, find themselves yearning to make a change in their lives under the aegis of the values encoded in a piece of ceramic.

Choson dynasty, Korean Moon Jar 17th-18th century

It is no easy task to keep making what is hellish vivid: the attempt can easily yield just formulaic horror, which ends up touching no one, until a skillful artist like Arnold stops us in our tracks with an image that brings home what is truly at stake when we let ourselves and others down.

“When you feel sad, you are participating in a venerable experience, to which I, this monument, am dedicated. Your sense of loss and disappointment, of frustrated hopes and grief at your own inadequacy, elevate you to serious company. Do not ignore or throw away your grief.”

Richard Serra’s Fernando Pessoa, named for the poet. Mar Português:

Oh salty sea, how much of your salt
is tears from Portugal