Why You Should Check an Art Marketplace Online

 

Why Browsing an Art Marketplace Does More for You Than You Think

If you enter any house, the information you can gather about the owner is usually apparent before they open their mouth. The books on the shelf, the plants in the corner, the art on the walls - these may come across as random choices, but that is not always the case. However, what's odd is that most people invest more time in choosing the couch than they do in thinking about what will be hanging over it. That is why checking an art marketplace is essential in this digital world. Don't lose the opportunity, since the science behind the effect of original art on us is more fascinating than most people realize. Art is generally the last thing we buy hastily at the big box store for the sake of filling up a space or filling a wall. Hence, art-selling websites are the best option you must check. Let’s discuss this in brief. 

Art Marketplace Online

Your Brain Doesn't Know the Difference Between a Print and a Feeling

When you stop at a particular piece while you are scrolling online art marketplaces, there is a reason behind it. Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered that viewing art we actually respond to fires the same reward system as falling in love or eating delicious food. The medial orbitofrontal cortex comes alive, dopamine is released, and, for a split second, the brain considers the experience to be memorable. The response can be mild to mass-produced prints, but original prints – prints with visible brushstrokes, texture, and the fingerprints of a particular human hand – tend to produce a more intense and enduring response. It's a whole different feel when you know that a piece is one-of-one.

This is not a mere act of snobbery. It's measurable. Research in both EEG and MRI demonstrated that individuals tended to stare at original paintings longer and expressed greater emotional response to original paintings than to copies of the same image. The brain appears to recognize authenticity as a sort of meaningfulness, even if we can't articulate the why.

Why “Filling a Wall” is the Wrong Goal

What's happening psychologically in our minds when you are checking the art-selling websites for a good art piece is different from how art is being used as decoration—what we select to go with the couch. Environmental psychologists have been studying what is known as "restorative environments," which are places where the nervous system rests from mental fatigue and stress. The classic example is the natural landscape, and that's why hospitals began with nature photos decades ago. Original paintings, sculptures, and mixed media pieces can have a similar soothing effect, particularly if the work has personal meaning for the person who is living with it.

This part is the easiest one to miss. A generic place of a beach at sunset is nice, but not psychologically, as it's not your beach. An artwork that stopped you mid-scroll, perhaps due to its color palette, its theme, or just something about it, has a very different impact. You're not really decorating a room. You are constantly being reminded by little things of what got you moving.

An Expert's Opinion on Original Art: The Stress Case

The art marketplace today is full of artworks of every type, but only a few make you stop and think. Why? Well. Stress is most commonly linked to cortisol, and there is a growing amount of research on this link and art. A common study conducted at Drexel University found that, no matter how experienced or proficient in art or not, the majority of participants had reduced cortisol levels after only 45 minutes of creation. Looking at art will have a more subtle but still quantifiable impact. Individuals exposed to art, or just living with art that is meaningful to them, tend to report reduced levels of stress and a better ability to regulate their levels of emotion than do persons living in environments without such art.

This is more important these days. For most of us, most of our days are spent in the same room, or even the same building. Whether we are aware of it or not, the visual world we create for ourselves is a powerful factor in shaping our nervous system, either positively or negatively.

How The Online Art Marketplace Has Altered The Game

Original art, though expensive, was never the biggest problem in living with original art: it was access. Traditional gallery culture can be insular, collector-oriented, and elitist, with a circumspect attitude towards customers who think they know what they want. The online art marketplace eliminates a lot of that. Independent artists can sell directly to buyers, with no mark-up or any curator's approval—one-of-a-kind pieces are therefore far more accessible than one might think.

This evolution has also resulted in an alteration of what people can find. Wall space and geography are constraints of a physical gallery that are shrugged off by art-selling websites. In the same afternoon, you can wander through abstract expressionism by the artist in Lisbon, and beautiful, minimalist landscapes by the artist out of a Midwestern studio. That's because the "right" piece for a space is not necessarily the first one that you see—it's typically the one you see after you scroll past a dozen pieces that were almost right.

If you'd like to see this in practice, you can begin by looking around the TERAVARNA art marketplace. One of the best art-selling websites, it's full of original paintings and mixed-media creations by independent artists in many styles. If you're not ready to purchase yet, you'll certainly see some that you are drawn to again and again after spending ten minutes or so scrolling through. The rule of 'color-matching your furniture' is seldom as apt as that instinct, the one that you can't resist looking at.

The Real Takeaway

Art isn't just something to look at. It is a brain processor that works quietly in your brain each passing moment you see it. They're not really nicer if they have good art in them because art costs more, but because they can transform the way a space—and the people in it—feel every single day if it's selected for the right reasons. That's easier than ever with an online art marketplace; the next question is: what actually holds your attention in your scroll?