Do all artists use the right side of their brains? As the region of the brain that hosts creativity, imagination and art awareness, it seems so. However, more people are finding their inner artist can be awakened no matter what side of the brain dominates.
For a long time, humans believed we only used one side of the brain. Today, most people know about the stereotypes between the right and left sides of our brains. This is because thousands of studies have been conducted on the human brain and the way it works. While we still don’t know much about its vast complexities, we do know a lot more than we used to. For instance, we know that the brain communicates between its two halves and its many lobes.
What connects the halves of a brain are bands of fibers that serve as electronic information paths. In most cases, we use both sides of our brain, but typically one side is dominant. This is not the case for some individuals as is true for people who struggle with autism, wherein both sides of the brain have no fibers connecting the two halves.
Where do you fit into this complex picture? Do you know if you’re a right brained or left brained artist?
Here are some strengths and characteristics of right-brained dominant and left brained dominant people…
Left
- Mathematics
- Analytical thought
- Speech
- Writing
- Logic and reasoning
Right
- Creativity
- Imagination
- Identifying with emotions
- Philosophy
- Art awareness
After reviewing this list, you, as an artist, may want to gravitate towards the right side. It makes sense right? (Pun intended!) Do these qualities seem to manifest them into yourself as an artist?
WARNING: Don’t be so quick to assume that all left brained thinking is cold and analytical, and the right is all creativity and ingenuity. Some incredible bodies of work and research explain that, due to the nature of our brains, it is impossible to be pigeonholed into one type of thinking per individual. There are always exceptions, and the flat out truth is that almost all of us blend the use of both sides of our brain.
So how does this affect your artwork? Take the opportunity to research some of your favorite artists and their works, and research what type of thinker they were. While you’re at it, explore articles about some of the many other characteristics of the right and left sides of the brain. You just might be surprised.
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Read Related articles
- Creativity: Left Brain + Right Brain = WHOLE Brain (customerthink.com)
- Divided brain (behemot.si)
- Are you a right or left brain thinker? [Nigel Temple] (ecademy.com)
Outside The Lines 
As you stated we are both left brain and right brain. The left brain is more typically associated with language, while the right is more abstract, and that is how i more choose to differentiate our “leanings” The person who is right brained, “the artist” is apt at taking abstract ideas and giving them form. They take ideas that exist in the collective psyche that has not yet manifest in a proper and the artist chooses to give them a language. A way in which the world can grasp onto these ideas and work with them until they eventually become established concepts in the world. Our artists are people that translate the right brain with the left.
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I posted a 30 second test on my blog today – most people are quite balanced but I lean heavily to be right-brain dominant. My trouble with picking up different languages bothers me but I now have a reason, if not an excuse.