Do you ever get your brushes out and splash some paint on a canvas?
No, me neither! But flash back to when you were four and you will have gotten stuck in, finger painting, scribbling and colouring in. The pictures might have been shocking but it never stopped your mum from sticking them on the fridge for all to see!
Some people grow out of art, while others grow into it. We’re lucky to have the world’s best illustrator on our team. Amy’s illustrations and posters are exactly in line with our ethos of playfulness and fun, while also delivering a sucker-punch wellbeing message.
But for the purposes of this blog, I want you to think of your mind as a canvas – a boundless space ready to be splashed with thoughts, ideas and dreams. Your mental states, emotions, and hopes for the future, these are the brush strokes colouring your canvas, creating the living, breathing artwork that is your lived experience.
Sometimes, your canvas is vibrant, splashed with joyful yellows, passionate reds, calming blues, each stroke a representation of a positive state of mental wellbeing. Other times, it may be streaked with greys and blacks, colours of stress, anxiety, and uncertainty.
At Art of Brill, we tell it as it is. We all have days when our canvas is a shocker. Everyone has bad days. The technical term for it is ‘being human’.
But with a little re-thinking of our thinking, we’re better able to choose the colours that dominate our mind’s canvas. It’s about picking up that brush and intentionally colouring our thoughts, sculpting our mindset, learning, and growing with every stroke. And just like an artist can choose the colours, select brush sizes, and decide on strokes, we all have the power to shape our mental wellbeing.
Remember, it’s not about pretending to be happy or faking your positivity. You can be a masterpiece without being happy and smiling all the time.
Don’t believe me?
Just ask the Mona Lisa.
Carl (aka ‘Chewbacca’) who lives in the Art of Brill engine room