Art is something that most of us can take for granted… but what actually happens to us when we see a piece of art? While each side experiences it differently, art would not be that same if you only experienced it from one side of the brain. The right side of us experiences things emotionally and intuitively. Without it, art would lose its beauty and meaning. A painting would just be strategically placed colors and shapes. A musical composition would just be a group of sounds. The left side of us experiences things in parts – it is responsible for figuring out how something is created. Without the left-brain, art would be incomprehensible. A Monet would just be a blob of colors. A symphony, sounds with no order or rhythm. A one sided experience with art would be either very bland or extremely overwhelming. So what’s your brain like on art?

The right side of your brain…

• Experiences the art emotionally.
• Internalizes the art and intuits the artist’s intent in creation.
• Understands that a painting is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object.
• Takes in the art as a whole and begins to break it into parts.

The left side of your brain…

• Views it analytically, seeing the steps used to create the art.
• Forces your eyes to follow the flow of the composition.
• Sees the art in pieces – colors, shapes, order and placement of the elements, etc.
• Puts all the parts together to form the whole composition.

 When you create art, similar things are happening in your brain. The right side comes up with the ideas, experiences the emotions and enables you to visualize your design. But those moments of inspiration and visualization are never getting out of your head without the help of the left side of your brain. It’s the left side of us that actually manages the project. Ever felt like you were full of ideas but couldn’t get them out? Ever feel like you could manage anything, but you needed help with the ideas? Train your brain in art and you’d be surprised what you can do next.

Each of us has two sides to our brain. Both sides are essential to our survival and success in life. However, each of us has a dominant side. Our right brain processes information very quickly as images through our senses which it stores subconsciously. It takes things in as a whole and attaches emotions to those images. It experiences things intuitively and sometimes appears non-rational in its processes. It is synthetic. It is responsible for the idea of what is created. Our left brain is very verbal, organized and sequential. It is logical, conscious, practical and analytical. It experiences things in parts and uses those parts to build a whole. It is responsible for turning data from the external world into language. It is responsible for figuring out how something is created.