The Gift

We often hear people speak of great artists as "gifted" individuals.  I have even heard people use that term to describe my abilities in art.  I've wondered about the deep implications of having a gift, and what impact that has on the way I practice my art.

The first thing that strikes me is that a gift is something which is given.  I didn't drum it up myself, through my own wisdom or experience or hard work.  It has been given to me by another -- by God himself.  It is based on His ability, His infinite creativity, his rich blessing and generous Heart.  Yes, there is a sense of working hard to perfect the expression, in skill and insight, but ultimately, it points back to the giver.

The second thing is that a gift is not something I deserve or have earned.  It is based on God's Goodness.  Just as salvation is a gift given to us, which we do not receive as wages or something we have worked for, my art -- the ability to see beyond the surface and then represent that reality in a way others can see, relate to and respond to -- is because God chose to give the gift, not because I'm such a wonderful person!

The third thing I have seen is that the gift is given so me not to horde for my own benefit, but rather to share with those around me.  Art can be intensely personal, both in its conception and its expression, but I have been given not only the vision to see through Christ's eyes, but a voice to express it for others.  Some of my art is still a very personal expression of worship between me and my Savior  but more and more, I am experiencing how it can be a way for Him to speak His Grace, Mercy and Peace -- to build Faith, Hope and Love in the lives of others.

In this season of Christmas, we spend a lot of mental and emotional energy around gifts, both those which we give and receive on a human level but also about he ultimate Gift which God gave to us in the person of Emanuel.  Let us be ready to receive that gift as artists, so that in turn, God may give His Gift to the world through us.

My Sketch Book

Over the last several years, my sketch book has become one of those personal, somewhat "sacred" things in my life. It has become my faithful companion, recording words, pictures, abstract shapes, emotions, truth, pain, practice, sketches of people at airports and on the subway in Prague. I've gotten so I hardly go anywhere without it (and the few times I've left it behind, I'm often sorry I didn't have it with me).

However, no matter how "sacred" and treasured that book may be, it will never be too precious that I won't hand it to a child and let them draw in it. My grandson Kyle (age 5) has several pages which I treasure as only a Grandpa can, but I have let others, both children and adults add their own work.

Of course, this always comes with its risks... One sketch which I just put up on my deviantArt page has a brown blob in the center of the sketch, which was caused by Kyle using a marker on the flip side of the page which bled through. I'm actually tempted to just leave it there as a bit of "collaboration" between him and me. (At age 5, he is actually quite the artist, and he loves his art classes even more than gym and recess in his Kindergarten class!)

There's a reason why I hand my sketch book to children. Most children, I've found, are natural artists. Some are better than others of course, but they are all uninhibited, and love to draw things. By handing them my sketch book, I am communicating that I value their art, that drawing is something that is not only fun, but that they can continue to do it through their childhood and when they are adults. I am an encourager by nature and disposition, and I think my sketchbook may be my most powerful tool.

If I can encourage a young person to take his or her art seriously, to show them that their drawings are more than just childish play, that someone really does value and enjoy their drawings (aside from just their mothers who will stick pretty much anything on the refrigerator), then I feel like I've added something to their life, and perhaps to the world.

Development of an Artist

One of those late at night ideas bumping around in my brain, which I wanted to get down before it evaporated....

It struck me that people go through a number of stages/seasons/steps as they start to grapple with what it means to be an artist.  These stages aren't really well defined, and have a lot of overlap, but I think they still map a definite progression in both the individual's understanding of their personal call to be an artist, and of how other people begin to see them:

(1) Enthusiasm:  This is the stage where a person first starts to recognize some sort of aptitude with art -- typically drawing things in notebooks or music -- and they begin to realize that they really ENJOY creating pretty things (or giving voice to their pain and anger).  More often than not, they are young, without a lot of life experience, but they are just waking up to the joy of creativity and imagination.  This is where big dreams start.

(2) Skill:  This is the hard work level, where people start to become serious about being an "artist".  They may be terribly self-deprecating, but nevertheless, they begin to put in the effort necessary to develop real, tangible skills.  This is the stage where other people start recognizing them as "artists".  They start taking classes, practicing, defining a style, hanging out with other artists, polishing their craft.

(3) Meaning: At some point, in order to become more than a skilled craftsman, or someone who can make "pretty" things, an artist needs to begin to understand not only how to create (imagination), but how to create meaning (soul).  This is the hard part, and frankly, where things begin to get really messy.  The message is not always clear, even inside of the artist's head.  Their artwork can begin to get edgy, dark, and push boundaries.  The artist begins to experiment, sometimes with disastrous results.  However, in order for an artist to become relevant, he or she must go through this season -- to survive the storms, so see things that no one else can see.

As followers of Christ, this is the stage where Christ really enters into our art, and we become Incarnational.

But, what does it MEAN?

One of the interesting things I've noticed when looking at art with some of my non-artist friends, especially when looking at more abstract art, is the tendency of those friends to ask, "But, what does it mean?"

Now, in their defense, these friends really are trying to understand what they are looking at.  They squint and turn their head sideways, trying to find something in the piece that they can recognize or connect to.  Sometimes I try to tell them that a piece doesn't necessarily have to "mean" something, or that the "meaning" may be something that isn't necessarily describable in words per-say, but I'm not helped by the fact that some "art critic" somewhere has gone to endless lengths to describe in great intellectual detail what this or that artist is "saying" through the blobs of color splattered across the canvas.

However, the more I think about the "meaning" of art, the more I believe that we are asking entirely the wrong question.

To assign a meaning to a piece of art is to assume that the work has a narrative, and more important, that the narrative is fixed in time, that the artist understood that narrative, and that he or she intended to communicate that narrative to us, the viewer.  However, real art isn't fixed in time.  It is certainly a product of the historical context from which it was forged, but if it has any real worth, the work has to be able to speak to all time, and perhaps to all people.  In addition, each person's response to the work will be colored by that individual's experience, history, story, perspective, emotional stability, what they ate for breakfast that morning, and a thousand other factors.

On the flip side, some people would claim that there is no true "meaning" to a work of art, and that it is completely subjective, based on the viewer's interpretation.  I think this fails on the basis that it denies any participation from the artist, the person from who's imagination the work sprang.  Intentionally or unintentionally, the artist has put some sort of thought, emotion, symbolism, or intent into the piece.  They may not even be conscious of the messages (there are always more than one) in the piece, but they are there nevertheless.

I believe that the better way to think about the content, or message of a piece is to think in terms of intent and response.

An artist always has an intent when he or she begins to work with a piece.  That intent may shift over time.  It may have different levels of conscious or unconscious input.  It may be dark and deeply meaningful, or light and playful.  The intent will depend on the artist's world view, their experience, issues that they are familiar with, things they see around them and their response to the natural and man-made world.  They will fold the things that make them happy, the things that make them sad, things that make them angry, things that make them afraid, things that give them hope, all the things that shape their lives, and which artists have learned to recognize and reflect on... and make them a part of their creation.

But then, no work of art exists entirely on its own.  It's not really art until someone (presumably someone other than just the artist) looks at or experiences the work.  When someone experiences the work, they will have a response.  The response will be on different levels -- emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical, and as I described above, will depend on a host of different personal attributes that they bring to the piece.  Their response may change over time as they experience a piece more than once.  The response may be conscious or unconscious.  The important part is that the response is personal, and that it istrue, in the sense that it is true for that individual

The interesting part is that, these two may, or may not overlap.  I suppose that most artists measure the success of their work by the degree to which these two do overlap, but perhaps the real success of a work is the extent to which it speaksbeyond the original vision of its creator, and touches many different people in many different ways.

The critical idea is that neither of these sides are the only truth.  We cannot deny the part of the artist and what he or she intends for the work.  The artist may choose to give the work a title, or other descriptive text, to signal some part of that intent, or at least what the were thinking about when they created the piece, or they may leave the work untitled, depending on the piece itself to communicate their intent.  On the side of the observer, their response to the work goes far beyond "understanding" what the artist was trying to say.  Just as some people laugh at the sight of a circus clown, while others cover their eyes and run away, responses can be wildly different.  However, whatever the response is, the piece has done its job of speaking to them, to their imagination, their emotion, their physical body and to their intellect, and in that sense, is true.

Of course, that still may not help my poor friend standing there in front of the painting, trying to figure out what it means....  

Bringing Sight

One of the never ending discussion threads that I have run into time and time again is the ageless question of, "What is Art?"  There have been countless minds much greater than mine which have wrestled with this question, and I strongly suspect that there is no complete answer to this question.

So, I am not in any way proposing to put that question to rest.  Rather, I think it is actually more useful to look at smaller pieces of the question, as one would examine the many facets of a fine diamond.  While we may never see every facet all at the same time, each one gives us a better understanding of not only what WE are trying to do, but a better ability to see and respond to what OTHER people are trying to do, in the name of "Art".

One of the most common ideas I've heard about art is that it brings beauty.  Now, the term, "beauty" is perhaps just as elusive to define as "art", but I think it is generally thought of as something which is aesthetically pleasing, brings joy, delights our hearts, conforms to certain ideals of form and color, etc.  There is certainly a lot of beauty in art, whether it is a sunset, light reflecting on water, a beautiful woman, patterns of light and color, reflections of strength and character, even the grace and grandeur of age, and it touches our hearts.

I certainly love beautiful art, and endeavor to make beauty a part of what I create, however, I think it is horribly limiting to think of art as only what is "beautiful".  The world is also full of brokenness, injustice, selfishness and darkness.  It is the calling of the artist to reflect both sides of our human condition, to bring attention to not only what is right about the world, but to harshly remind us of what is wrong, and our responsibility even to see the roots of that reality in our own hearts.

Perhaps more than beauty, it is the character of art to bring us sight.

It is human nature that we are horribly short-sighted.  Especially in our dark times, we may either choose, or simply be incapable of recognizing the beauty that is sitting right in front of our noses.  How many evenings have we hurried from our car to our door without pausing for a moment to notice the beauty of the sunset, or a flower, or even the determination of a blade of grass pushing its way up through a crack in the concrete?  How many times have we paused to look into someone's eyes and recognize the inner beauty reflected there (regardless of whether that person is a "model" or not)?  Art, in its best form, gives us an opportunity to stop, reflect, consider, and absorb the beauty around us that we so rarely take the time to see.

On the other side, there is so much around us that we refuse to look at.  Darkness lies around every corner that we avoid.  In our comfortable surroundings, we forget the injustice and human suffering that make our plush, modern lifestyles possible.  We have no idea of the realities of so many other human beings, whether they are under the curse of poverty, slavery, oppressive regimes, famine, war or natural disaster.  Right next to us, people are trapped by their own inner darkness, taking shape in countless different demons.  Art can open our eyes, whether it's the heart wrenching images of a photo-journalist or battle field photographer, or the twisted, bloody scrawling of a tormented teenager.

Art brings us to be able to see all of that.

Art is a mirror to see the truth about ourselves.  Art is a spotlight to help us see through the darkness.  Art is a microscope to help us notice the little things.  Art is a filter to reduce the noise of life.  Art is a paintbrush to fill in the colors of the world around us.  Art is a lens that brings people into focus.  Art is a conversation to bring understanding and friendship.  Art is sledge hammer that breaks down walls of prejudice.  Art is a heart monitor that reminds us that we are still alive.

The more we think of our art as "speaking" and "seeing", the more we will truly be able to create great art.