To many people, art is fluff – not the stuff of day-to-day work-a-day world reality. As a result, art is seen as a frill that can be done away with when money gets tight and time is in short supply.

Yet, even in the most unlikely places, art sprouts its head. Colored glass perches on trees in the yards of modest, otherwise unadorned homes. Flowers planted by long-ago lovers of beauty keep coming back year after year along country roadsides long after the planters have gone, lifting our spirits even before spring has really arrived.

Art is one of humankind’s few creations fashioned merely for the purpose of drawing attention to itself. Art exists simply because someone found it beautiful and meaningful in some way. And the human yearning bound up inside it allows that creation to touch our shared spirit.

Brookhaven is fortunate to have not only the Mississippi School of the Arts in its midst, but also a very active community of local artists who encourage and support artistic ventures in our area.

On Thursday, the Fine Arts Committee of the Brookhaven Trust brought two visiting artists to town to show their works in the meeting room of the Lincoln County Public Library and to talk about their creative processes.

More than 50 area residents and MSA students crowded into the meeting room-turned art gallery for Thursday afternoon’s presentation from Cecilia E. Baker and Gwin Robertson.

In her brief talk, Baker noted she had always been arty – “artsy pooh,” she quipped.

But despite its fluff and pooh reputation, art is no lightweight. It has the ability to bring out the best in us.

Brookhaven is blessed to have art alive and well in our community, due in no small part to MSA and the local Trust and its Fine Arts Committee.