Why Do Art for Your Next Vacation?
WHY ART?
Because a week at the beach will relax you, but not invigorate and transform you.
Because learning is the best elixir known.
Because being amidst the arts will do magic for your soul.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
- Pablo Picasso
FINDING FLOW
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has a term for the quality that sets labor apart from work: flow — a kind of intense focus and crisp sense of clarity where you forget yourself, lose track of time, and feel like you’re part of something larger. If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter for a pet project, or even spent 20 consecutive hours composing a love letter, you’ve experienced flow and you know creative labor.
While work is seen as a necessary evil, being able to relax, to have nothing to do, seems to most people the royal road to happiness. The popular assumption is that no skills are involved in enjoying free time, and that anybody can do it. Yet the evidence suggests the opposite: free time is more difficult to enjoy than work. Having leisure at one’s disposal does not improve quality of life unless one knows how to use it effectively, and it is by no means something one learns automatically.