We’ve all heard about the ability of humor to heal illness. Norman Cousins and researchers after him have shown that humor and laughter can cause positive physiological changes in patients who suffer from stress and auto-immune related illnesses.
There’s little doubt in the medical community that art is also an effective means to healing. Since the mid-’70s, arts therapy has come into its own as a way of motivating individuals to open up emotionally to the possibility of healing. There is even a recent move toward looking at the arts not just as therapy—which implies the treatment of a condition—but also as a form of self-help, as a way of maintaining good mental and physical health. All these various approaches involve the patient as artist, however. What about the patient as a viewer of art?
Indeed, if both humor and art have healing qualities, then the exhibit of Red Grooms’ Tennessee Fox Trot Carousel is the perfect exhibit for an ailing viewer—what’s more, the show couldn’t find a more appropriate venue than its current home at Vanderbilt’s Medical Center. An animated mockup of the entire carousel—slated to be completed in late 1997 and installed permanently at Riverfront Park—can currently be seen in the waiting area of Vanderbilt Hospital. Blinking brightly while it turns, the model shows miniaturized versions of famous and not-so-famous Tennesseans, among them Roy Acuff, Anne Dallas Dudley, Wilma Rudolph, and Grantland Rice, along with figures representing the Bell Witch, the Standard Candy Company, and others. Upstairs, on the mezzanine, are three completed carousel figures, plus color sketches of other figures in progress; all of these pieces convey Grooms’ sense of humor while imparting a visual lesson about Tennessee history. I couldn’t look at any of this work without feeling good, and, judging from the comments written in the exhibit register, this is the consensus of most of the people viewing the exhibit, which remains up through February.
Elsewhere in the Vanderbilt Medical Center, the Eskind Biomedical Library is currently showing work by a woman who has obviously worked on building her creative muscles—although “bones” might be the better word here. Kristi Hargrove’s graphite-and-colored-pencil drawings feature plays on words that make parallels between anatomical drawings (usually of bones) and drawings of still-life objects or objects from nature. Words and phrases are sometimes embossed into the drawings; Hargrove does this by writing on the paper in harder leads, then using softer leads to shade over the text. The drawings have an accomplished technical quality that recalls the work of Chris van Allsburg, best known for his illustrations for the Caldecott Medal-winning children’s books Jumanji and The Polar Express. The images themselves are more surreal, however, because of the juxtapositions of bones with more ordinary objects and the break-up of the picture plane into several rectangular frames, almost like a split screen.
For all their surreal free-association, though, these works are narrative in style. For example, the drawing titled “Connected” features a young woman seen from behind and foreshortened in the largest section of the drawing. A frame showing the woman seated on the ground with a group of marbles in back of her (the only color accent in this section) is bordered on the left by a beautifully drawn, medical-illustration-style hipbone. In the lower fifth of the drawing is another frame—tree stumps accented in blue. A wishbone lies on the ground next to the marbles, looking as though it could be used as a slingshot. The words “make a wish,” “hipbone connected to the,” “to unite two things, tie, not to unravel” can be found in various places within the separate but connected drawings. The sense of story here is palpable, but, as with much good art, it is a story that the viewer herself writes; thus, it’s different for each person looking at the work.
Due to their placement, these drawings are seen mainly by medical students—which is to say that they may not be seen at all, since the students are in the library primarily to study. The work is up through the end of February. If you haven’t got a Vanderbilt library card and you want to see this exhibit, your only recourse is to ask at the circulation desk and see if they’ll let you into the building.
Keeping fit
In the end, it’s difficult to say whether viewing art has beneficial health effects. But if you’re looking for ways to engage in art-making as a preventive health measure, then you might want to check out the Creative Fitness Center. Although it sounds like a gym where pliés are done in concert with stair-stepping, it’s actually a place where anyone can drop in to make art whenever they so desire. Meant as an alternative to arts classes that require six or more weeks of commitment, the Creative Fitness Center specializes in making materials and space available to those who don’t have access to them. Visitors can pay an individual drop-in fee, or they can buy a 10-visit punch card; monthly and yearly memberships are also available to adults and families. In addition, the Center hosts one-day workshops in a variety of media, including drawing, bookmaking, and jewelry.
Located at 1207 Linden Ave., near Belmont University, the Center recently held what it billed as “Nashville’s first interactive art show.” Although a well-intentioned idea, the exhibit’s title was definitely a misnomer, considering the incredible interactive art done in Nashville over the years by Don Evans and his band of renown. Still, the Center’s owner, Whitney Gilbert, is putting her marketing background to good use in trying to make Nashvillians aware that art is not something to be done only by gifted individuals. It should be practiced by the society as a whole, particularly if that society seeks to maintain its own developmental health.
As any historian knows, the links between culture, artistic activity, and social development are inextricably interwoven. The current inability of so many Americans to understand the importance of the arts bodes ill for other aspects of education; what these people fail to realize is that practicing art means practicing problem-solving skills. Considering the downward turn achievement scores have taken in educational statistics, it seems as though we need more places like the Creative Fitness Center, places where we can build our creative muscles—which, in turn, help keep the brain fit.
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