Leonardo da Vinci said, 'Realise that everything connects to everything else.' Artists see connections and, by sharing them, give us a richer understanding of our lives and our world.

I'm reading the new book of poetry by Winchester's Stephen Boyce. It's a collection of poignant, exquisitely phrased poems full of thoughtful observations of everyday life in which he makes unexpected connections. The longevity and strength of a stone becomes a metaphor for love while still reminding us that all things pass. The Sisyphus Dog which gives the book its title describes how a dog endlessly repeating the same task enriches the day of the person watching, which in turn suggests in the mind of the reader that the apparent pointlessness of one's life may take on meaning in its effect on others.

As it happens, What's The Point Of It? is the question asked in the title of artist Martin Creed's retrospective exhibition in London's Hayward Gallery. To walk round it is to be constantly amused and delighted by the connections he makes when he views an everyday object. A sheet of typing paper rolled up becomes a ball; the world's most ubiquitous car becomes an attention grabbing show stopper of lights going on and doors slamming; waste becomes a sculpture; you walk into a room full of balloons and suddenly the air around you that you take for granted becomes as tangible as the ground you walk on.

Ironically, although the world of the web is about connecting everyone and everything, a marketing person like me finds it depressingly lacking in creative connections. Yes, advertisers working in the mass media can still come up with a clever metaphor to delight us, like the TV ad in which Evian water drinkers see themselves as pure and natural as babies, but when it comes to websites, today's Mad Men are producing prosaic paragraphs designed to ensure website content is understood by literal-minded search engines. Not for me a Shakespearean reference to 'the eye of heaven'. When I mean 'the sun', I must call it 'the sun'.

Thank goodness for artists like Stephen Boyce and Martin Creed who show us that everything in our lives is rich with meanings and connections.

The Sisyphus Dog by Stephen Boyce is published by Worple Press
Martin Creed: What's The Point Of It? is at the Hayward Gallery, London, until 5 May.

This blog was written by Paul Lewis, owner of the marketing consultancy The Lewis Experience and online retailer Your Life Your Style, and former Head of Marketing and Operations at The Mayflower Theatre. You can connect with him on Google+ and LinkedIn.