Can art enhance your life? Here’s what I learned from Ali Smith, Tracey Emin, Claudia Winkleman and more

In our always online, AI-imperilled lives, simply looking at a painting can improve wellbeing and offer creative guidance. For my new book, artists and writers shared their advice on how to live life artfullyHow many times a day do you reach for your phone? Do you jump at a notification, spend journeys locked in on your tiny black mirror? What about during meals, or when you wake up? Does it make you feel enriched, alive? I am just as guilty as the next person: swiping, liking, scrolling. But in a world built to distract us, how can we take five or 10 minutes away from that, and instead add something enriching to our lives?I like to look at artists for the answers. They get us to slow down and think about different ways of looking; to notice nature and beauty; time changing in front of us. They remind us of the joys of making, and in a world where AI is attempting to outsource our creativity to machines – the delight of discovering something for ourselves. Artists see the potential in something: like a word that can be joined up into a sentence that can grow into a paragraph, or book; or a tube of paint that can be used to create an image. Not only can these get us to see something from a different perspective, or teach us something about their world, but hold our attention, and invite stillness, too. Continue reading...

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Vicky Pattison refused to tell truth about husband’s age – until now

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