Many thanks to Pipolotti Rist for sharing her artwork, Pixel Forest and Worry Will Vanish, at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts this past summer, and many thanks to her for proving to me that immersive artwork encompasses more than a staged exhibit. It exists all around us.

When this particular picture was taken, I was surrounded by a sea of blinking lights whose pixels echoed all around me. It was hard not to bump into the long strands that streamed down from every inch of the ceiling. Hung on the walls surrounding the exhibit, screens with projected images that vanished and blended and swelled all together swept away all that were immersed within the room. A blush pink, a vivid blue, a lavender purple-the colors slowly fell away and flowed together seamlessly, over and over and over again. For how much the room had been taken over, I was never overwhelmed. I felt content and at peace.

 

“Worry Will Vanish”—yes, when I was in the room I forgot there was ever such a thing as worry. I was with my good friends, we were laughing and admiring and enjoying each other’s presence, and the sea of lights took me away in all its luminescent beauty.

 

However, it doesn’t take an art exhibit at a downtown museum to appreciate the beauty that exists around us. We can find that feeling in all the little things that we surround ourselves in, that we choose to surround ourselves in. The magic of art is overwhelmingly omnipresent in our lives. You just have to take it upon yourself to look: the radiance in a smile, the blank canvas in a clear blue sky, the running symmetry in the powerlines that you stare at through your car window when you drive. Let it take you away and find, even in one second of your busy day, the blessing of peace and comfort—and your worry will vanish.