how to appreciate things

Last night I went to the First Friday art walk in Denver. When I look at art, I glance through the various artists and displays until I find something that really grabs me. Then stand there and bask in it.

I know this sounds almost rude to the artists who poured themselves into their art, but at this event, there are HUNDREDS of artists displaying their art. If you looked deeply at each person’s work, you’d be there many days. But you’d also be numb to the art after the first two or three hours.

I had an art teacher who told us to never spend more than two hours in an art museum. She said that anything you see beyond that will just go right past you and you get desensitized. It’s better to make several trips on different days than try to cram in too much art.

Anyway.

I had wandered around and finally landed on one artist I really liked. The paintings were of abstract fields and shapes and voids, and each had a small solitary figure usually toward the bottom of the piece. Most faced away from the viewer, like they were gazing into the abyss or soaking in the oblivion.

I couldn’t find the one I REALLY liked.

I finally could slow down and go piece by piece through this artist’s works.

As I was standing there, a man with two women walked by. He pointed at the piece I was looking at and exclaimed, “Now THAT is just my style!” and quickly walked away.

Now, I recognize that this is exactly how I flew through the first dozens of artists I glazed by. But that was intentional. I was looking for some art to appreciate.

I wondered just why this guy said he loved something so much and then quickly moved on. I don’t doubt that he genuinely loved the painting and style. But I do think we have lost much of our ability to appreciate, well, anything.

Think about how social media has programmed us to see things we love. For me at least, I may find an artist’s Instagram page who piques my interest and so what do I do? I blast through their page as quickly as possible and throw them a few likes and go back to scrolling through countless other profiles hoping to find someone else…who I like as much? It’s a terrible phenomenon.

Literally nothing is good enough to hold our attention anymore.
Nothing is worth appreciating deeply.
Nothing can compete with the dopamine rush of finding what’s next.

If you were (or are) an artist, how would you want your work to be perceived? Would you want someone to walk by in passing and say, “I like that!” and rush away, or would you want to catch the right people who would stay and let it sink into them?

I know I may be making myself seem like I’m better than that dude because I stood there and he didn’t, but it’s because it’s something in myself I’m trying to force. Because most of the time, I approach art and beauty with the same passing modicum of interest. Maybe one way to say it is, most of the time, I am him and seeing his explicit “two second appreciation” was like a mirror for me.

What would change if we were able to look deeply into paintings, nature, people, and even other things like good food or a bike ride, and appreciate them more richly? I think our dopamine-sick brains would settle down and become more satisfied. Instead of seeking what’s next, we could extract a deeper appreciation of what’s in front of us now.

Even worse, I’ve found that I can take the same approach to women, in the age of dating apps. There is little difference between swiping through a dating app and scrolling through interesting posts on Instagram. No matter how great the current infatuation is, there could always be more to see. There could be someone who fits your preferences better. It’s insidious.

All we are doing is robbing ourselves of enjoyment.

Enjoy the person across the table from you now.
Enjoy the painting on the wall in front of you.
Enjoy the view out the window of your drive home.
Enjoy it all because there is no better, richer version of reality somewhere else.

One thing that has helped me, because I have no self control, was to ask a friend to put a screen time passcode on my phone. Now I’m limited to 20 minutes of social media a day, which forces me to not scroll, but to use that time to post daily on Crumb Hill and check messages. Then I’m forced out.

I also cannot download new apps without the passcode, so I’m off the dating apps for now. I don’t think they’re inherently bad, but they are for people rebuilding self control!

So I encourage you: Slow down until you can appreciate things again. It’s a lost art and we are moving away from it more and more with every robot that can generate ‘art’ on a screen.

Art is about appreciation, not data transfer. You don’t look once and ‘get all the data at once.’ Good art works on you over time. So let’s appreciate it together!

e

Day 47 of 100 Days of Blog

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