Art can make familiar feelings visible.

You have felt something for years without ever being able to hold it, and then a song or a line of a book puts it in front of you and it is suddenly a thing with edges. Nothing new was created; something already present was made visible, and the relief of that is why art matters to people.

When a work hits you disproportionately, take it as information. It has named something you were carrying. Sitting with why it landed will usually tell you more about your own state than any amount of direct self-examination.