Inside Art: September 2026

by Louise Seirmarco-Yale, Reston Artist

Every season brings a new look to our environment. Some of it we like, and some we like less. Art can help us enjoy every moment, event and season. We can use art as therapy.

Consider the worried child who has apprehensions about school and never shares those feelings. Many adults remember bad school memories. The remedy is reassurance. Art is reassuring to children and to the child that remains in us even now as adults. How?

Art has the ability to take us to a place where we feel secure. Like all art, reassurance is unique and different for each of us.

For some of us, reassurance is touching a precious bracelet left to us by someone special. Is it the jewelry? Or is it the remembrance of what touching that piece of jewelry evokes? Seeing that bit of art takes us to a special psychological place, where we are happy, safe and reassured about the goodness in life and our place in it. That's what art can do!

Carrying or keeping a small physical object for reassurance is an ancient idea. Smooth stones with a natural or carved depression, rubbed with the thumb and known as "worry stones," appeared across many cultures. The repetitive rubbing itself can be calming, much like modern fidget objects.

Amulets were associated with luck, courage, health or protection. An example is the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who wore or carried small objects, such as Egyptian scarabs, which symbolized protection, renewal and life. A charm might be a coin, tiny figure, piece of jewelry, animal form or object associated with someone important. Art that reassures us always speaks to us, and has for centuries.

Beads handled during prayer and contemplation were used in numerous religious traditions, such as rosaries in Christianity, mala beads in Hinduism and Buddhism, and misbaha or tasbih in Islam. The physical act of moving from bead to bead provides rhythm, touch and focus, much like performance art.

Coins, medals, religious medallions, military tokens and keepsakes have often been carried in pockets and touched in moments of uncertainty. Their power does not come from magic, but from association. "This belonged to my mother," or "Someone gave this to me," or "This reminds me who I am." It is just comforting.

Association becomes the magic in life, as in art. Art is the physical form of reassurance when we cannot actually be there ourselves. A parent putting a tiny stone in a lunchbox and saying, "If you miss me, hold this for a minute," is participating in a human practice that is thousands of years old.

Consider giving a power object today to someone who needs reassurance. An object that, at first glance, is not called art, but actually is.

Louise Seirmarco-Yale is a Reston artist, speaker, teacher and author of "Art. You Be The Judge. Reawaken Your Instincts and Enjoy Art On Your Own Terms," free download at www.peopleneedart.com/ or on Amazon, Facebook and Instagram at @louise_seirmarco_art.