Sharing Your Vision

Last month, Harvard Business Review published an essay entitled, “The Best Leaders See Things That Others Don’t. Art Can Help“. It made this important point about the ability of art to help business leaders perceive things they might otherwise miss or discount:

Without ever intending it, experienced leaders often allow what they know to limit what they can imagine … [that’s why] it’s so important for leaders to see their company [sic] and industry [sic] with fresh eyes — which means looking at their work in new ways. Art, it turns out, can be an important tool to change how leaders see their work.

But it missed another, arguably more important point: Art can help everyone (not just leaders) see everything differently everywhere (not just at work).

Salvation by Imagination*

If you don’t believe in the power of art to inspire imagination and to compel people to look at themselves and the world differently, consider this: My husband created a workshop, Finding Your Voice, for fledgling writers who want to find or improve their authorial voices. In the workshop, he uses my painting, “Dawn”.

Dawn

In the first session, he gives participants their first and only assignment — to write their interpretations of the painting. (The remaining sessions are spent refining the written expression of those interpretations.) No interpretation is judged to be correct or incorrect. How could it be? Imagination isn’t correct or incorrect. It just is. Any judgment can only be subjective. Subjectivity is the source of interpretation. And vive la différence!

Live Out Loud**

In the same way my husband uses “Dawn” to help people with their written expression, you can use art — painting, sculpture, pottery, and more — to help with the visual expression of your vision. Serious. Playful. Constructive. Recreational. Your vision is anything you want it to be. And the art you choose for your workspace will reflect your vision, as well as your brand and its personality, even as it invites the creative interpretations of those who work in and visit your space.

To paraphrase Harvard Business Review, art, it turns out, can be important in changing the way others see your work and your workspace. And it’s an engaging way to express your vision.

If you’re ready to share your vision, we’re ready to help you express it.

* “An idea is salvation by imagination.” (Frank Lloyd Wright, Two Lectures on Architecture, 1931)

** “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” (Émile Zola, Nana, 1880)