Calm Corner with artist Hallie Bateman

A series about anti-anxiety art

I’ve started building something I call calm corners all over my house. A Calm Corner is a small area, the size of a glance, that radiates peace. I create them in strategic places like stairwells, or the corner of my bedroom where the sun lands, or the patch of counter that always catches my eye when I look up from interminable Zoom meetings.

Sometimes a Calm Corner is just one that’s fastidiously clean. Others are more direct in their calming mission like the spots that sport anti-anxiety art. These art pieces fizzle out my anxiety faster than a Headspace meditation.

After collecting a fair share of these pieces, I thought you might like to see them too. Calm Corner is where you’ll hear from the creative person behind the calm.

Now Clock

For a recovering time-maximizer, there’s nothing more panic inducing than a clock ticking away as I scramble to be productive with my day. Clocks are apparently meant to tell you the current time but they’re mostly a diabolical tool used to worry about your life slipping away.

How late will you be if you don’t leave now?
How much time do you have left before getting out of bed?
How has it already been two hours you just sat down to watch Netflix?

But one clock breaks the mold!

The “Now Clock” from

Hallie Bateman

let’s you know you’re always on time because the time is Now. Btw, this product video starring her husband Jack is precious.

I hung my Now Clock on the wall opposite my bed so as soon as I wake up I can drop into the now. It truly calms my nervous system to see all those colorful “Now”s and hear the little clock hand ticking away in the present moment. No sense of loss or pressure to do. The Now Clock gives me visual permission to just be.

So… what is it like creating a calming piece of art? Let’s find out from the artist herself,

Hallie Bateman

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1. What were you thinking about when you made this piece?

The Now Clock was originally a GIF illustration I did long ago, and I can’t remember what I was thinking about, but the writing I was illustrating was lovely and had to do with time and memory. 10 years later, the clock idea had stuck with me – I liked the idea of taking the concept further and decided to make it a physical object. I thought endlessly about how to make the concept a real, 3D object and spent a lot of time on websites for clock parts and talking to printers and manufacturers. It took more than a year to create the 3D clocks.

2. How do you hope people will feel when viewing this art?

I hope people who see the Now Clock are surprised and delighted to see a real, functioning clock that exists only to remind you of the present moment. I hope it is a helpful reminder that time is a human-made construct and to wake up to the present moment. And mostly I hope they laugh and feel delighted by it.

3. Who is an artist or what is an art piece that amplifies peace within when view their art/the art?

I absolutely love the work of LA-based painter Michelle Blade. Her work captures beautiful, ethereal scenes that make me stop and look closely and examine. I love to look at her paintings and wonder about the moment depicted, what the story is there, and how she made the painting.

Follow Hallie on Substack
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Do you have an anti-anxiety artist you adore? Share their work in the comments so they can be featured on Calm Corner.