The Arts, Creativity and Faith

My brain loves to get hung up on that secondary thought, “Who are we, that you care for us?”  But the artist in me can only imagine what David was looking at.  The heavens!  No street lights, no cars going by, no light pollution from a nearby city; just the heavens.  Orion, the Big Dipper, the Milky Way; maybe even a planet or two.  What a glorious sight for David the song writer.

As artists, we also draw inspiration from what we see.  The snow-capped peaks of The Rockies, a field of daisies, or the clasped hands of a mother praying.  So what moved the artists of different periods to create?

~Renaissance artists were concerned with realism and focused on humanity and the human body.  They sought to capture the experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

~Impressionists had no desire to paint historical subjects and weren’t concerned with perfection in visual appearances.  Instead, they went outside and painted the ever-changing light and how it affected the appearance of a landscape or a person.

~Cubism involved different ways of seeing or perceiving the world around us.  Cubists didn’t use perspective or shading in their paintings to make objects look realistic, instead they showed many different viewpoints of the subject all at the same time.

~Even Abstract artists had a reason for what they created.  They believed a painting could be appreciated for its line and color alone.  It didn’t need to depict a natural object or scene.

Each group had a different opinion about what and why they were creating, but each idea is still based around God’s creation: Light, color, form, texture, pattern.  So is there value only in what is produced?  Certainly not.  There is a greater worth in using the gifts God has given us.  When we create, we see God’s artistry displayed in His marvelous creation which is all around us.

Written by Russell Wilson, Faith West Academy Art Teacher