415: The Life Nourishing Benefits of Welcoming Art into Our Sanctuary (and how to curate your own collection)

The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style

Shannon Ables

Society & Culture, Education, Self-improvement

4.7 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Art is a language without words." —Kate Bryan, author of How to Art: Bringing a Fancy Subject Down to Earth

Why art? Why bring it into our lives? Why spend our hard-earned money on it? We often hear about the skyrocketing headline-making prices of paintings being sold at auction, but what's the point of purchasing something if the entire reason is to accrue value to sell later?

The primary objective, Bryan shares, in writing this book, is to remove the assumed 'closed doors' or air of snobbery about art that she admits the art world itself has constructed. But, and she makes a strong argument, art, seeing it, appreciating it, making it, is part of being human. And to cordon it off, to claim that it is only a pastime for those with oodles of money or interest to acquire art of the upper echelons is preposterous.

You may be wondering, Why is Shannon talking about this subject? What does art have to do with living simply luxuriously? With living a life of true contentment?

It is precisely because true contentment is grounded in presence, seeing, clearing, and appreciating the everyday that the choice to bring art into our homes helps us savor each and every moment even more. When we bring works of art into our homes, we bring in a moment in the artist's life as they saw it. Their capturing of this ordinary moment in time, however they depict it, is a reminder that there is "beauty and marvels in the everyday". Even if we cannot or do not want to even try to be a literal artist, by gazing at their art, having it be present in our daily lives, we are continually reminded to see the gift in each day - to consciously look for it, take note of it without taking it for granted, and to savor it.

Today, I would like to encourage you to consider, if you haven't already, acquiring an art collection to display in your home. Of course, how and where you display it, most likely throughout your home, will be up to you. Conveying your tastes, interests, and values in what each work depicts reflects a collector who engages with life in the present and brings their self-knowledge and quiet confidence to what captures their eye.

Find the Show Notes on The Simply Luxurious Life blog https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast415

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the simple sophisticate, where in 2014, this podcast premiered, and now in its 12th season,
0:10.0	the show continues to focus on the same principles it was founded upon, the art of living a life of quality over quantity.
0:18.0	Topics range from creating an everyday life you love living, strengthening mindfulness
0:22.9	practices, building a capsule wardrobe, preparing seasonally delicious meals, traveling and exploring
0:29.2	France and Britain, and living life to the fullest as you courageously honor your true self,
0:34.8	because living well really is quite simple once we know the skills of
0:39.3	cultivating contentment. I'm your host, Shannon Ables, and whether you're listening while
0:44.7	you're on your commute, exercising, working in the garden or art studio, in route or returning from
0:50.4	that dream destination, or sitting down and savoring a hot cuppa or a cafe au lae thank you for
0:57.1	tuning in let's get started welcome to the 415th episode of the simple sophisticate in today's
1:05.0	episode we're going to talk about something that i don't think we ever talked about here on the podcast
1:10.2	we have had a few posts focused on it,
1:14.2	but after reading a book that was released this year, I was immediately inspired to share with you
1:22.4	how it overlaps with nourishing a simply luxurious life or a life grounded in true contentment.
1:29.3	What am I talking about? I am talking about the nourishing benefits of welcoming art into our sanctuary.
1:37.0	And we're going to talk about how to curate our own collection because it is for everyone. And there is a new book that came out from a
1:49.5	British art historian who is the current chief art director for Soho House since 2016. Her name is
1:58.6	Kate Bryan. And she wrote a book that immediately captured my interest. I've
2:04.6	shared it on the this and that's, this past autumn. And it's titled How to Art. Yes, it puts art in the
2:13.7	frame of a verb. So how do we art? How do we create a life that welcomes art in the frame of a verb. So how do we art? How do we create a life that welcomes art into it in our daily
2:22.6	lives? And is it really something we can do? Yes, yes, it is. It is not a snobby group away from us
2:30.7	thing to do. We humans create art constantly. We share art constantly. It's part of being
	...

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