Embodied Sympathy

So, the craftsperson imagines what people need and then makes objects that fulfill those needs. Her work is beneficial.

I agree that art is what feels right. Thinking first about your subject and your intentions, and then of line, size, shape, form, color, rhythm, texture, dimension, light .... sifting through all the elements of composition and design to find what feels right.

Treating the subject.....hmmmm. Interpretation requires learning our own feelings, as well as how to express them....intensely studying our feelings, becoming intimately acquainted with them, coming to grip with them. It requires awareness, overcoming preconceptions, observation and allows us to appreciate the beauty of things previously overlooked,and to discover (or uncover) new relationships, to delight in them.

Embodied sympathy involves a resonation with others' psychological and emotional states and creating to express and/or alter those feelings...to reach out and understand....and by experiencing the creation (useful object, adornment or visual art) be touched by it, possibly transformed by it, hopefully helped by it (treated??)

Embodied sympathy is a two-way street between the artist and the subject. It flows nicely into the social implications of art, social design, etc.