What is Art Thinking?

Art Thinking is a perceptual and psychological framework for understanding how experience becomes meaningful. It looks at how we sense, interpret, and respond to the world. Although the term appears in design and educational fields, my approach grows from attention, somatic awareness, relational nuance, and the inner life.

In my art, therapy, and consulting work, this framework acts as a through-line. It encourages a way of seeing that notices subtlety, stays present, and values meaning over performance. It continues to evolve through lived practice, research, and long engagement with perception and the creative process.

The heart of this work is attention. Small changes in light, tone, mood, or context can influence how we understand what is happening, often before conscious awareness. When we tune in to these details, thinking becomes more flexible, layered, and precise. Insight emerges from presence rather than pressure.

This approach is different from Design Thinking. Design Thinking aims to solve problems and produce outcomes. My framework focuses on perception, meaning-making, emotional insight, and psychological depth — the foundations of genuine creativity and inner understanding.