“Art is the proper task of life.” –Friedrich Nietzsche quote

      Recent scientific tests reveal that the brain’s happiness module is switched on when we are engaged in art. Like the average preschooler didn’t know that. We have to stick wires in our heads for proof.

“What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.” –John Updike

      The proof is simpler than a lab test on a barrel of monkeys. We simply have to choose our palette, literally or figuratively, and start.

“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.” –Walt Whitman

      Our art may be scribbled, whittled, dribbled, strummed, hammered, woven, rhymed, danced, whistled, pruned, cooked, folded, erected, squeezed or caressed.

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” –Oscar Wilde quote

      As long as we engage in art simply for the sake of happiness, we are laughing with the gods. Well, we enthuse, for obvious reasons. But the scientific tests rationally anchor our story.

“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” –Henry David Thoreau

      We can’t all be a Miro or a Marsalis, but we all can affect the happiness of our everyday lives. Art’s golden rule is simple. Choose your palette, and start.

“An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” –Charles Horton Cooley quote