I started getting interested in art later in life. Before then I’d been focused on building my career, attending to my marriage and looking after my children. Then divorce happened and I had the freedom to be able to visit art galleries whenever I wanted. My income was also now my own, and I made a small collection.

Not everyone finds slowly wandering through art galleries restful. It’s certainly something I like to do solo. I’ve tried it with small children and an impatient spouse, and that’s rather stressful. By myself I can stand as long as I want in front of a picture, or back-track to look at something again, or sit in peace absorbing larger perspective and smaller detail. Lingering in galleries looking at original artwork is even supposed to slow down aging and reduce levels of stress hormones (links at the bottom of the blog).

One of my favourite artists, Tracey Emin, has an exhibition in the Tate Modern at the moment. So, I travelled to London to see it. Her art is difficult to define. I say she’s one of my favourite artists, but ‘favourite’ is not the right word. Her art connects with me. There’s a phrase that a friend used that describes it better. Her art ‘speaks to my condition’.

A lot of her work is raw and not for the faint of heart. It’s sometimes described as confessional, but it’s more of a diary of her life. She’s not confessing anything, she’s just telling her life with an open honesty, depicting the aspects of events and relationships that are usually hidden from view, a diary that most people would keep secret and locked away.

In one of the rooms at the Tate exhibition there’s a film that Emin made about her experience of having an abortion. The room was full of women watching and listening with a tangible concentration that comes from an instinctive understanding. What a good artist does is express something that we have difficulty reaching within ourselves. When we’ve seen the art, we walk away with a better insight of our own condition.

The wall at the back of the room with the film is covered in pictures. One of them was drawn in 1995 and titled ‘If I Could Just Go Back and Start Again’. In an interview with the Guardian in 2009 she talks about this picture:

“I spent seven years learning to draw, and this makes me realise how worthwhile the lessons were. The drawing has the innocence of a young girl staring out beyond the picture. It makes me want to jump into the paper, grab hold of the girl - who is me - and shake her and tell her everything is going to be all right. I wonder if drawings can be the imprints of our souls? Maybe some drawings existed before they were actually made, and they just float around in the ether like ghosts, waiting to appear on paper.”

Do you have a favourite artist, or is there a painting, sculpture or film that ‘speaks to your condition’ leading to a better understanding of yourself and those around you?

Rowan on the Moor

A Moodscope member

‘Tracey Emin, A Second Life’ is at the Tate Modern in London until 31 August 2026. If you’re not a member of the Tate then you’ll need to book tickets. The exhibition gets quite busy so early booking for the time you want is a good idea. When I visited there was a long queue for security at the main entrances. The queue at the side entrance was a bit shorter.

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/tracey-emin

Viewing art in galleries has an immediate positive impact upon the body according to research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/the-positive-impact-of-art-on-the-body

Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/12/arts-cultural-engagement-linked-slower-pace-biological-ageing-ucl-research