The app that once began with an array of artfully arranged lattes and avocado toasts shifted, for a while, its attention to promoting millennial influencers with a mastery of DSLR cameras and photo presets. This app, however, has still (amongst its one billion monthly users) creative minds that use it to express their creativity and poetry with those seeking beautiful visuals.

Science states that the brain plasticity encouraged by creative thinking helps our brains to develop throughout our lifetimes and it even helps with our romantic relationships. [The Guardian]

Kurt Vonnegut wrote in his autobiography A Man Without A Country:

“Practising an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

And I cannot agree more that being creative influences my state of mind so much, as whenever I have periods of time filled with lots of work and no time to do something creative I feel less alive and happy.

Patti Smith once said, “Everyone has a creative impulse, and has the right to create and should”. Even if most of the time it is just absorbing visuals in this little app that has captured everyone’s attention, there are some timeless photos online that create a state of rêverie. And as Klimt said, “Art is a line around your thoughts“. What better way to express your thoughts than doing creative things?

Here are some inspiring images and few quotes on art and creativity…

“Creativity takes courage.” ―Henri Matisse

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.” ―Vincent Van Gogh

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ―Thomas Merton