�There has to be a humanity to your dance. . . that is your soul.� -Coco Loupe
I define art as creation born of expression. Expression alone is not art; I may converse with someone, and we may express ideas, but this is not called art because there is no creation, there is no creative process employed, and there is no product of this expression to be viewed. Creation alone also cannot be called art, for if we make something that says or expresses nothing, than it is fruitless. I believe at the center of all art there must be meaning. This may seem like understatement, but there are implications that must be understood with this statement: I do not believe in art for art�s sake; if nothing else, art must exist for the sake of beauty. I do not believe �pretty� equals art. There are differences between beauty and pretty. Marian Seldes once said, �What is pretty? Is it art? No, it isn�t.� I believe beauty reflects God. Sometimes all that is needed is to state or show some aspect of our Creator, some piece of His creation, and that is beauty. Other times to see His reflection we must first see contrast, to see His goodness we must also see the suffering, to see the peace that comes by Him we must also see hardship. There is beauty in the contrast. We must get away from the concept that to be beautiful something must be pretty, it must be likeable, it must always make us smile. That can be beauty, but beauty can never be confined to such because it would be untruthful. That is not our experience of this world, and while it is also true that not our entire human experience is beautiful, there is beauty in truth because truth is Godly. I would also go further to insist that there is far more beauty in this world than we acknowledge, because this is the world created by God, and although it is fallen and corrupted, His presence is here, and His presence is in us, thus beauty forever resides in us, and because of this our experience should forever be infused with beauty. From this experience, from this beauty, come art. So, art must be more than just a creation, it must be more than just pretty. In art, there must be a purpose, there must be an idea, there must be message; art must say something. In addition to the message of art, it must be addressing, the message must be to someone. Art must reach out to an audience, a reader, a viewer, and relate to their experience, to the human experience as a whole. There are many levels to this, for a number of reasons. First, there is the diversity of the human experience, spanning a myriad of experiences and emotions, be it joy or pain or solitude or love, be it interdependence or confrontation, being broken or becoming whole. Art can and must touch these things. That is the power of art: art is created from within, it is an expression of an experience, a world view, a belief. It is creation of expression. Expression itself cannot necessarily be called art, but when something is created through expression, that product is given the name art. And because of this natural factor of art, the birth from a personal or communal experience, it relates. Someone who sees it will say in their heart, �I have been there, I have felt or done that.� If a work cannot stir this response, it has lost its purpose. If �art�does not relate, it is born from something other than the heart, thus making it difficult or impossible for the art to achieve communication. It becomes merely an exercise of traditional methods by an artist and diminishes with the artist. If the full meaning of a work is tied to the creator of that work, than with the failings of the creator, the work fails, its meaning disappears. It is art to the glory of self. Madeleine L�Engle once said, �The artist is a servant who is willing to be a birthgiver. . . Art is communication, and if there is no communication it is as though the work has been still-born.� I believe that is the severity of art that fails to have a message, that refuses to convey ideas, that has no meaning, that does not relate.
This concept of relatability is brought to a new level when put in the context of art created by the Christian; the one who knows God, who holds relation with the Son of God, is responsible for so much more. Our life is a life that is meant to relate, to share what we have been given, what and Who we have come to know. This must become visible in our art to fulfill the work to which we are called. Does this mean that all of our art much be a Christian allegory or analogy? Absolutely not. In my opinion, stronger is the message that need not be literal, but simply exists as an abstract messenger that may be perceived and interpreted in many different ways, but no matter what has been led by the Holy Spirit and carries that spiritual presence with it. A piece is set before a viewer and the Holy Spirit uses it as He will to mean what it needs to mean to each person. Does this mean create blind chaos and see it used to make sense? No, in the words of Madeleine L�Engle (who I intend to quote often), �The reproduction of chaos is neither art, nor is it Christian.� The God we serve is a God of order; there is an order to His creation. There must be an order to our creation. Does this mean that chaos does not speak? No, indeed, chaos does speak, but I believe it speaks to the parts of this world that have fallen to corruption. It speaks pain and darkness, and in it there are no answers. This is not the same with the abstract. An abstraction is a concept or concrete idea made less concrete, less literal, but there is meaning at its center. It was born of an idea. It has a message to tell. . . the tragedy is when his message is obscured by loftiness, be it in style or technique, or piety and religiosity. If we place ourselves so far above our audience than they can no longer relate, they can no longer receive, they cannot receive the message that we have to share. This does not mean that we stray from excellence. On the contrary, without excellence the product of creative expression cannot and will not be respected, and in the same way will not be received. Another quote by L�Engle: �Much so-called religious art is in fact bad art, and therefore bad religion.� I believe that we of all people, we who are called the children of God, high priests, those called by the Name of God, we should be the creators of superior art. The art we create as Christians will reflect on our faith one way or another. Yet where is the line that lies between loftiness and excellence? It lies within the heart. What is the motivation of the heart? Martha Graham once said in reference to dance, �Movement does not lie. . . what the dancer does on stage tells the audience what he is.� An audience will know if your motivation is to be the best, to make the perfect line, to create the next masterpiece in art or literature. It is shallow; it is purposeless. On the reverse, if an audience sees a work of the same technical excellence that is produced by an artist whose intention is to give of himself, or to convey an idea, or if nothing more than to record his experience, an audience can receive from that. No matter what, if we create from ourselves and our own experiences, someone in an audience will relate, and thus they will be touched, and if even one person is touched, then the work is a success. From the Christian perspective, if one person is touched, then that is one person who may understand, one person who may come to a realization of truth, one that may come to salvation, and when we trust in God to do His work and complete what is left unanswered in that life, move by His spirit, then that success is made so much sweeter, and much more lastingly real. So, do we strive for perfection as an end unto itself? No, to do so is to idolize self, to imagine that perfection is achievable by man. No, as Christians we seek to glorify Him in all that we do, and because we do it as unto Him, if that is truly the motivation of our heart, than we will surely desire to do all that we can, the best and greatest we have to give in His name. We seek perfection as we seek to be more like Him and to glorify Him in our work. And the greatness of this is that our strength, our inspiration, all of our assets by which we create are from Him. We both rely on Him to create and give to Him our creation, for His glory. A beautiful quote by my mentor Shanna Forrestall, �The artist is one of the most blessed of the children of God; Through our art we worship, and in our worship we not only touch the face of God, but we touch the heart of man.� When we let our art become our worship, imagine the power of the creation set before men. Imagine how it can touch a heart to see a creation that not only relates to them, that reflects something that they have known or seen or felt, but also worships the Creator of the universe. John 12:32 says, �And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.� When our art lifts up and exalts the Lord, He will be faithful to draw all men unto Him; this is His promise. What a comfort that we need not strive, that we need not be responsible for the changing of hearts, the drawing of the soul, but merely glorifying our savior.
A topic I wish to explore for a moment is that of the call to create. Matthew Morris, Christian artist, once made to me the statement that we are called as Christians and as creations to be like Christ, our God, our Creator. Creator. That is our first knowledge of God, that it was He who created us. If we are called to be like Him, then what are we to do but create? If we are to be imitators of our God, then that seems the most obvious place to begin. There are other commands, even greater commands, loving the Lord your God with your heart, mind, soul, and strength, loving your God holistically, and to love your neighbor as yourself, loving people; these are the first and second greatest commandments (see Matthew 22:37-40). I now may range into what may be considered wild speculation, but these thoughts seem relevant. The first way God showed His love for us was by creating us, that we may be with Him in the very beginning. How incredible a thing it would be to express our love to our God and this world through creating. I earlier discussed the drive to glorify God in our art, but what of our love? Our art must be directed by love (see I Corinthians 13). �Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.� If I create works of great splendor of technique or inspiration, yet do not have love, what good are these creations? How deep must this love run? I believe it starts with a love of God, that because of our love for Him, we create, we seek to glorify Him. There must also be a love for those who receive the work, for love opens the heart of men. When we are loved and rest in the security of that love, we make ourselves more vulnerable, we ready ourselves to receive, we allow ourselves to be spoken to. And I believe there must be a love for the work itself. Again reaching to the analogy of the creation as a child, we must love it, we must nurture it, grow it up, and push to be all that it can be, as a loving parent would his child, as our Father does us. There is also a power in this imitation, that as we take on the role of creator to our work, then may man see the role of the Creator in their lives, see themselves as the creation. To paraphrase L�Engle, all art is an incarnation of something, that as we create, our work is indwelt of something. Our work is the embodiment of the relationship of creator to creation, the relationship we share with our Creator. As we show this relationship, our work acts as a testimony that we are creatures, that we have a Creator, and our love for our work reflects His love for us. And that love speaks.
These are the beginnings of many of my thoughts on art and creation, on beauty, on faith, and on the relatabilty of our art. In many ways they are incomplete, in many ways these are not answers in themselves, but I hope that they point towards fuller thoughts, inspiration to create, and art of excellence and relatabilty from the hearts of Christians to the world to which we are called.