Art is beyond therapy
It is transcendental
In this human existence on earth, we perceive our surroundings, our experiences through our senses. It is no denying that sensory perceptions are what makes our experiences so unique.
According to Wiktionary, art is the conscious, skillful arrangement of elements-like color, sound, or language-to affect the senses and emotions, or to communicate ideas. It encompasses creative expression, aesthetic value, and the resulting works, such as paintings, sculptures, or performances.
Etymologically, the word “art” comes from the Latin ars (or artem), which meant skill, craft, or a work of art. This Latin word traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root ar-, meaning “to fit together.” This root connects to other words involving assembly or production, like arm and artificial.[1] [2]
Since I was very little, I was entrenched in artistically expressing myself. I wasn’t necessarily schooled in art per se; however, expressing myself through various art forms was a major part of my growing up. On my mom’s side were dreamers and creators, and on my dad’s side, consumers and critics. My mom, who also majored in biology in college like me, sees art in everything that surrounds her. I believe she has passed on this very same artistic acuity to me. At the same time, I have imbibed my dad’s conception of knowledge through books and science. I’m grateful to have acquired the best from both my parents to have a mishmash of sorts-a dreamer, a believer, a cynic, and a learner all in one-allowing me to perceive the world and see the potential to create art in all its forms. Give me twigs, a canvas, pencils, utensils, a pen, a notebook, music, or any random ingredient, and my mind immediately starts exploring the potential to create. There I was, mentally manifest-crafting my way into the hearts of Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, only for the pandemic to ruthlessly crush my reality TV debut before even Making It.
Okay! I’m neither saying that my relatives were famous artists, nor does my direct ancestry include professional artists. However, in my opinion, many of my relatives were able to quietly express themselves in artistic proportions that are truly divine. My mom’s ability to masterfully cook thogayal (spiced chutney) and kootu (lentil stew), create freehand sand art in the form of Rangoli, sketch, paint, or even build something out of recyclable waste has truly been ingrained in my very being. An artistic thread runs deeply through my family. My grandma and my brother played the violin; my sister can sing like an angel even today; and two of my nieces are incredibly talented dancers. Another niece is a truly gifted visual artist; I purchased her first painting. My aunts were always into singing, dancing, or playing a musical instrument, while a few of my cousins have also learned to play instruments over the years. Even my grandpa captured his own form of art, maintaining a daily diary that he wrote in for as long as I can remember. My dad is an avid consumer of art in all its forms; his gift for ekphrasis has beautifully shaped and refined my own skillset, particularly when it comes to writing.
Art to me is that shift from conception to creation, one that transpires from flowing with nature’s patterns. It is deeply rooted in the understanding of nature’s rhythm and how she intentionally forges new pathways. To me, art is my way of communicating with my entire being. If you ask anyone who has known me for a long time, they would definitely pin me down as being artistically expressive.
I believe that an artist acts as the perfect vessel, receiving, interpreting, and transmitting earthly and ethereal information into art, a creation that emerges as ephemeral bursts encapsulated within the time-space continuum. When these transient moments are frozen into a snapshot, they can later be replayed and rejoiced, time and time again. Above all, art is a means to transcend the mundane-a direct conduit to the divine essence.
Tantalizing Tactile Experiences
It is impossible to create art without the ability to feel through our largest organ, our skin. Our tactile sense is perhaps the most invaluable tool for both sensing and creating art; without it, we simply cannot convey the true depth of our universe.
Whether I’m sculpting, crocheting, sewing, dancing, cooking, gardening, sketching, painting, or writing, without my tactile expressions, my art would render incomplete. It always begins with me touching my instruments of creation. Dancing, especially, is entirely about expressing through my face and the motions of my body, which are fundamentally rendered by my physical structure of bones and muscles. Cooking also requires knowing the feel of ingredients and their changing textures in their before and after forms. The temperature, the aroma, the essence, and the taste are all so very vital. Culinary geniuses explore a sagacious understanding of smell, texture, and taste-important sensory perceptions conveyed into the experiential wisdom needed to truly enjoy food.
Growing up ingrained in South Indian culture, I was also exposed to eating with my bare hands. There is truly nothing better than engaging all your senses to experience food in the most pleasurable way. This is beautifully true when food is served as a vibrant palette on a banana leaf, with the textures and colors laid out strategically. In that moment, the eater becomes the artist, consuming the food as their hands journey around the leaf, mixing and blending before taking each bite of the delicious spread. They are essentially consuming the art itself, committing it directly to the mind’s memory centers to be re-lived and savored later. To me, smell and touch invoke the richest experiences that can be transferred through food. If you’re a connoisseur of food like me, you would understand.
I believe that during the early learning phases of toddlerhood, children naturally love exploring their worlds through smell, touch, and taste. This was especially true for Sachika; as a toddler, many of her artistic expressions were significantly tactile in nature. Her early creativity thrived through the hands-on textures of kinetic sand art, rainbow loom, weaving loom, Play-Doh, and building blocks.
Sachika, in her golden and preteen years, bonded with me over baking and cooking. Our favorite shows that inspired our creative masterpieces were MasterChef, Rosanna Pansino’s baking channel, and several other Food Network shows. However, I have to admit that I do not particularly subscribe to the Gen Z culture of mukbang, where you watch others gorge on food. I guess it is a new-age art that appeals to youngsters? Currently, I prefer subscribing to my favorite chefs on YouTube-Maangchi, Your Food Lab, Pick Up Limes, and Hermann-for inspirational vegan recipes. Yet, I must confess I thoroughly enjoy the “reel end card” moments on Your Food Lab, when Chef Sanjyot Keer relishes his own creation. Perhaps mukbang, to me, is only acceptable as a climactic, finishing moment.
My pet tabby, Maxi, also creates her divine, healing masterpiece of PURRFECTION only after she lays on her human. Of course, the warmup begins with her walking between the legs of her human compadre, rubbing aggressively yet lovingly against their legs, hands, and face with her soft, soft fur. If pet art isn’t divine, then what is?
Trailblazers for Differently Abled
“My hand is to me what you’re hearing, and sight together are to you.” “Beauties of the hand are many, touch has its ecstasies, the hands of people of strong individuality and sensitiveness are wonderfully mobile in a glance of their fingertips they express many shades of thought”-The world I live in & Optimism, a collection of essays by Helen Keller
Helen Keller’s wonderfully expresses about her tactile, taste, and sense of smell in her book “The World I live in & Optimism”. She conveys in her book the idea that art can be apprehended through the whole body, not just through the eyes and ears. Keller’s reflections make the sense of touch feel expansive, poetic, intimate, and divine-a pathway into beauty, knowledge, and transcendence. In her words she emphasizes that touch was not a lesser substitute for sight and hearing, but her primary way of knowing, feeling, and participating in the three worlds she perceived-physical, intellectual, and spiritual. For her, the hand functioned as an eye, an ear, and almost a spiritual instrument. Through touch, she could experience the tremble of a butterfly’s wing, the softness of flowers, the form of sculpture, and the living presence of another person.
She presents the hand as both sensory and sacred: it allows her to grasp the physical world, understand beauty, connect with others, and reach toward intellectual and spiritual meaning. Keller also challenges the assumption that the five senses are neatly separate. By pointing out how language blends sensory terms-such as “hearing views,” “seeing tones,” or “tasting music”-she suggests that all perception is interconnected, and that touch can hold as much richness, depth, and ecstasy as sight or sound.
Helen Keller changed how the world sees art and disability. Today, her legacy lives on through the Helen Keller National Center (HKNC). The center hosts the “Seeing Differently” art show in Manhasset, New York. This exhibit lets visitors feel paintings and sculptures made by DeafBlind artists. This tactile exhibition at The Art Guild demonstrates how art transcends boundaries to become a powerful language of communication, connection, and creative expression.
To me, another quiet trailblazer bringing the artistic expressions of the differently abled to the general public is GiftAbled. GiftAbled is the living vision of Prarthana and Prateek Kaul, who are nourishing this beautiful grassroots effort to bring sensory-challenged artisans a healthy, dignified living. It is a truly inspiring journey that takes their foresight far beyond simply providing a livelihood for people with disabilities; they aim to empower and make their artisans shine through sustainably sourced products that showcase their beautiful creations.
I was introduced to Prarthana through her sister, Archana, who is a college classmate of my husband, Shashi. I instantly fell in love with GiftAbled’s clear vision and path. I eagerly wait for Prarthana’s wishful weekly tidbits in her Marvelous Monday posts, part of her #20For20 series. I can attest to the absolute joy I feel when listening to her media posts. I am transfixed as her ever-smiling, purely joyful, and dazzlingly expressive face delivers power-packed punches of wisdom bytes. Through her journey of uplifting the lives of so many, she never fails to inspire me.[4]
Stimulating Auditory Waves
A mother’s heartbeat creates the soft sound waves that resonate through a sea of amniotic fluid, soothing the baby in the womb. It is this first sound bite that we familiarize ourselves with from deep within. That rhythmic impulse begins to attune us to the vibrations and sounds around us, setting the stage for all our future experiences with sound. Perhaps this primordial connection is how ancient cultures discovered that certain sounds and hymns produce specific vibrational frequencies that resonate directly with the divine. Ultimately, certain music and sounds possess the power to transport us into a state of transcendence, echoing the sacred temple of our mother’s womb where we were first created.
Hindu temples are architectural wonders designed as a symbolic reminder of this truth, housing the deity within the “Garbha Griha”-literally, the womb of the divine mother. Within these sacred structures, sound serves as the most entrancing element. The resounding ringing of bells, the pulse of drums, and the cadence of hymns and chants are all carefully woven to draw you deeper into an inward journey.
Singing, chanting, and music kindle three core aspects of Bhakti Yoga: Shravanam (hearing), Kirtanam (chanting), and Smaranam (remembering). Shravanam involves actively listening to sacred chants and discourses, planting seeds of divine love that create a continuous undercurrent of God-consciousness during daily chores. Kirtanam channels restless mental energy outward by singing the praises of the Divine through bhajans and mantras. Finally, Smaranam keeps the divine presence alive internally through Japa-the silent repetition of a mantra throughout the day. For me, chanting my go-to mantra, “Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram,” is the ultimate way to ground my thoughts and calm my mind.
Sound engineering and acoustics are foundational architectural cornerstones of churches and cathedrals. One cannot deny the powerful state of grace that takes over when a choir performs during a Sunday mass.
I’m reminded of the lyrics in the Secret Garden lullaby “May there always be angels to watch over you. To guide you each step of the way”. The soothing melodies of this song indeed lulled toddler Sachika to sound sleep. Lullabies are simple musical art that starts at home. They may not fill concert halls but to me they are divine symphonies.
Today, as a seventeen-year-old, her taste in music is like an old-school FM dial-she can tune into any genre depending entirely on her mood. She subscribes to Spotify Premium and wears her Beats headphones as if they were a permanent accessory in her everyday wardrobe. Naturally, we often have opinion squabbles over what constitutes actual music versus what should be classified as pure noise. As I said earlier, art is highly subjective and there is absolutely no right or wrong answer (though, for the record, she is wrong sometimes).
“Sound waves are physical and have different frequencies.”
In Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir’s brilliant book and its spectacular film adaptation, he introduces the Eridians-intellectual beings from the planet Erid who communicate and navigate entirely via echolocation because they lack traditional sight. They possess rock-hard exoskeletons laced with intricate nerve endings that intuitively produce sounds. When an author’s vision of an alien is brought to life with perfect sound engineering on the big screen, the audience instantly falls in love with them. Be it Rocky, Chewbacca, Groot, or Jaadu, their vibrational hums strum the strings of our hearts in perfect, resonant harmony.
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When listening to certain music, regardless of whether you understand the lyrics, the notes possess a magical ability to transport you to an entirely different realm. Similarly, Celtic and classical instrumental music always places me on a creative wavelength. I fell in love with Enya as a teenager, and that habit has beautifully stayed with me. For me, consuming sound art means tuning into soft, rhythmic decibels-focusing on the vibrational waves sent through my body rather than solely relying on auditory stimuli. I am sure that cacophonous, louder genres like Noise Music, Hardstyle, Heavy Metal (such as Doom or Death Metal), Aggressive Dubstep, and Neurofunk have their own distinct appeal to many, but I prefer to stay far away from them.
Captivating Visual Sensations
As someone who has been visibly abled all my life, I believe vision is our most stimulating, yet deeply deceiving, sensory perception. Indeed, the study of physics would be incomplete without an understanding of light, just as our earthly existence would lack a profoundly immersive depth without sight.
While all senses can be fallible, vision is simultaneously our greatest gift for creating art and designing the physical world, and our worst curse when manipulated by the mind to establish a deep-seated ego. Because sight can be so easily influenced, it is naturally the very first sense we cut off during meditation to achieve deeper introspection.
As humans, we have built a world designed primarily for the sighted majority. Out of 8.2 billion people globally, roughly 6 billion are visually abled, meaning our environments are highly optimized for the 73% who perceive the material world through the visible spectrum. However, this leaves a massive, underserved population of visually impaired and differently abled individuals.
As a lifelong visual artist and a keen observer of human biology-fascinated by how visual field and handedness biases shape our perception-I have explored dozens of mediums, from sculpting and ceramics to intricate beadwork and high-school biological sketches. Recently, I found a deeply meditative synergy by combining the fluid, unpredictable nature of watercolor painting with the structured, mindful practice of neurographic art. By surrendering to a state of creative flow and intentionally rounding every intersecting line, my initial concepts organically unveil themselves at the finish line.
Art is a vast, endless medium of learning that constantly fascinates me, regardless of whether a form is ancient or modern. I want to express my deep gratitude to Vasanthi Aunty, who introduced me to two incredible Indian folk-art traditions: Warli and Madhubani. These two styles sit on opposite ends of the artistic spectrum. Warli relies on a minimalist, single-color palette and basic stick figures to capture lively scenes, while Madhubani embraces vibrant, bold colors and intricate, detailed patterns. I thoroughly enjoyed both workshops and highly recommend them to anyone, from absolute beginners to advanced painters.
My journey into classical Indian dance began in my teens with Bharatanatyam, a fundamentally structured art form. It follows a highly systematic progression from one adavu (footwork sequence) to the next, seamlessly weaving mudras (hand gestures) and abhinaya (expressive storytelling) into intricate choreographies that honor foundational techniques. While Bharatanatyam’s various schools infuse the form with distinct stylistic signatures, my dance journey recently evolved when I was blessed to find my Kathak Guru, Parna Basu-ji. She is a direct disciple of the legendary Pandit Birju Maharaj-ji, who was bestowed with the Padma Vibhushan for his exemplary service to Kathak.
Rooted in the ancient royal courts of Northern India-a history traditionally dominated by male dancers across various gharanas (schools)-Kathak is the profound art of storytelling through dance. Unlike the linear structure of Bharatanatyam, Kathak requires moving with the entire body in a unique state of balance: the core remains strong and deeply engaged, the posture stays perfectly composed, yet every movement flows with effortless elegance, grace, and intentional stances while the eyes fluidly follow the path of each gesture.
The Written Word
Language is one of the most significant milestones in human evolution, serving as the bedrock for both verbal and written communication. Through prose and poetry, words become a deeply evocative art form capable of meaningfully reflecting the world we live in; indeed, even the emergence of artificial intelligence would have been impossible without the structure of human language. Having enjoyed a long, rewarding career as a technical writer crafting instructional materials for diverse products, I am now transitioning into creative writing-a new journey whose fluid, expressive process I am thoroughly enjoying.
Conclusion
I’m in awe of all the creativity that surrounds us. Be it natural or artificial, real or envisioned, ephemeral or permanent, art is that invokes a deep sentiment within us, a sentiment only known to us through our experiences, our beliefs, our knowledge.
Each and every one of us has the capacity to be that channel for artistic rendering. Even while performing our everyday chores and tasks, be it gardening, cooking, or organizing, we are implored to engineer, to build, and to create. Our creations may not be masterpieces, but they are simple, functional products and systems that alleviate our routines.
The culmination of sensory experience, veiled in the shadows of the mind, makes every artistic rendition deeply subjective. If you are a breathing, functioning human adult Earthling, this material world, and your worldly experiences shape the way you perceive it. Ultimately, art is in the perception of the beholder, the seer of art, whether that seeing happens through the ocular device of the body or the mind’s eye.
Thank you for exploring this creative journey with me. If this piece resonated with you, please show your support by leaving a few claps-or many, if it truly inspired you! I believe we are living in an era of an unprecedented creative surge, with a unique ability to access resources that enhance our innate abilities and accelerate our artistic evolution. As humans, we have progressively evolved intellectually, spiritually, and creatively, and we are now stepping into uncharted territory for human expression.
I would love to hear your thoughts: What does art mean to you? How do you prefer to express yourself? And are you, like me, a jack of many arts, exploring where your true mastery lies?
Originally published at http://ask-lifes-journal.blogspot.com on July 20, 2026.
References and honorable mentions:
- There Plant Eyes, A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness, By M. Leona Godin
- https://seandietrich.substack.com/p/the-helen-keller-art-show
- Soul, blues, jazzy renderings of Ray Charles, Hit the road jack or Georgia on my mind.
- https://www.worldartswest.org/mission--vision.html
- https://nritta-katha.com/
[1] Danto, A. (1986). ‘Art, Evolution, and the Consciousness of History’. The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art. New York, Columbia University Press
[3] https://www.helenkeller.org/hknc-deafblind-artists-tactile-exhibit/
[5] https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-people-left-eyed.html
