The View Through My Eyes

Josh Groban: You Raise Me Up (Live)

The fine arts have always been a subject near and dear to my heart. As a child I grew up in a musical house hold, learning to play the piano at the age of five and then switching to percussion at the humble age of seven. In addition, I have been working with theatre since I was seven and have done everything from acting to designing the lighting in a wide range of productions. I was immersed in music and theatre from a very young age and I consider my involvement with the fine arts one of the most life changing factors thus far. At times in my life when all seemed bleak, the fine arts allowed me to express myself in such a way that all the negative feelings which had built up seemed to melt away. When things were in the gutter, I would play music with my friends and family or maybe work on a design for a new show I was working on. In a study done by Robert Bruley, eighteen lawyers were subjected to art within their firm for ten weeks in order to observe if art actually has any effect on our levels of stress. “According to Bruley, collective and individual results showed a marked improvement among those studied. There was a 66 percent overall improvement in stress response among the lawyers, a 9 percent increase in collected revenue for the firm, and enhanced relationships with legal staff and clients.” (Feldman) The fact of the matter is that the use of these artistic activities to relieve stress and to relax can not only be impeccably effective, but incredibly fun as well.

I feel that many of today’s youth are lost in society. They are confused and require something to structure their thoughts and emotions in a way that will allow them to take the wheel and steer their own lives properly. The fine arts are an opportunity for all of us to express ourselves and to catalyze the release of pent up emotions and stress so that we may think clearly when we our faced with a big project at work or even something as simple as a math test at school. We as a nation need to step forth and demand further government subsidization of these fine arts so that we may all have the opportunity to clear our heads and thus better our chances of success.

Feldman, Joan Hamby. "Art, stress and productivity." Law Practice Apr.-May 2009: 46. Academic OneFile. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

Groban, Josh, perf. You Raise Me Up. 2008. Youtube, 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.

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