Regarding the details

October 27, 2015 Alice Zhang featured themes

It’s important to find the little things that make us happy. We’re often thinking too much and feeling too little. Art gives mass to the fine details and helps us extract hidden emotions in everyday life: funny things overheard on the subway, the warmth of a humble room, the quirks and idiosyncrasies of your relationship, the way your thoughts and dreams are mirrored back to you in the one you love… Artists on Stew awaken us to the richness of our daily lives. Art re-sensitizes our eyes to the beauty, humor and nuances that are easy to miss. These details are vital because they remind you — just when you need it the most — that life is a series of everyday adventures, infinite sets of boxes within boxes.

It’s the little details that are vital.

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Cute, heartbreaking and then cute again! Then you realize: Aww that’s me!

October 23, 2015July 27, 2016 Alice Zhang featured themes

Cute and heartbreaking and then cute again! That’s how you feel when you find art that you love, you realize: Aww that’s me! We fall for a piece of art because it’s relatable, at the same time it subtracts weight from our daily lives. Life takes on lightness. Artists on Stew skillfully deconstruct tears, fears and anxieties and craft them into whimsical, charming and engaging images. So sweet! Their art is tinged with melancholy but fringed with joy, little conversations about this world and our generation.

Art helps us navigate our experiences while continuously delivering delights.

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It all starts with a daydream.

October 18, 2015November 3, 2015 Alice Zhang featured themes

Man in his bubble. Dreamer by Jarek Puczel

A daydream is more than just evasion. Early 20th Century writer James Allen wrote about the importance of solitary thought, tranquility and dreams. He emphasized that a man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. Our thoughts shape our environment (“Environment, is but our looking glass”). Daydreams are crucial to vision planning. A vision can become a reality, the threshold to future decisions.

As our lives become ever more turbulent, art is your best instrument to building a calmer world. Art encourages constructive daydreams.

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The true purpose of fantasy.

October 13, 2015 Alice Zhang featured themes

Francisco Goya’s The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters is one of the most spectacular prints from the birth of the modern world. It belongs to a series of works sharply critiquing the ills of Spanish society at the start of the Enlightenment. As with its historical counterparts, today’s fantastic art is allegorical, rooted in everyday life, united with reason and injected with comic byplay. Taking a step away from reality, art helps prepare us to tackle harsh and complex situations with a clearer perspective.

Art and fantasy are also the cornerstones of creativity. The imaginary came naturally to us as children, it was a way for us to fill in the gaps to understand the world. As adults we learn to self edit, we become embarrassed and sensitive to the opinions of our peers, we start to hide our wild ideas. Having fantastic artworks in the workplace is the foundation for building an environment where creative risks are welcome. Whether you’re starting a company or enhancing your work space, it’s another way to say: Just go for it!

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Art retrieves the wonders of childhood.

October 6, 2015October 7, 2015 Alice Zhang featured themes

Childhood is the shortest season. Art helps retrieve bittersweet memories in incredible clarity: of hot dogs and birthday cakes, the joys of being picked up and swung around, splinters in the foot and the first Nintendo games. No matter how many times we were pushed on a swing or rewarded for being good, they were never enough to last a lifetime. The day we stopped counting the candles on our birthday cakes is the day we left our childhood behind and started fretting about the future. Most of us spend the rest of our lives trying to regain a certain simplicity and spirit that we had as children. Art helps you carry your childhood with you, and summons up the defining moments where we became alive for the first time. Never stop screaming, playing and laughing, it’s still very beautiful.
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