i’ve updated my blog theme and its significantly cooler than i am. Edgier, i guess is the right word. The formatting is all over the place, but i’m okay with that for right now. although, i’m hoping to get it a bit more under control.
Art is honest confession, good for the soul. Good for the soul of the artist and for the receiver both. Seeing, touching, feeling, hearing, longing for Art is to know that someone else feels the same way. The honesty of the artist creates space for others to be honest, “Yes, I feel that way too.” and in this the artist has created Art.
Hope exists only because of despair, without despair there is no hope. Art confronts despair and fear by facing it head-on, conquers it by bringing it out into the open where it can seen for what it is. Art brings despair into reality where it is powerless- fear has power only in untruth and in hidden places. Hope grows as despair is exposed for lies.
“But we possess ourselves and all things in hope, for in hope we have them not as they are in themselves but as they are in Christ: full of promise. All things are at once good and imperfect.”
-Thomas Merton
Art does not exist in a vacuum or in unstructured chaos. Art, in this sense, is something be honored by making deliberate time for it and by identifying the rythm it requires. Haphazardness or waiting for inspiration equally spell doom for the artist who wants to create lasting Art.
Art is about reaching down inside yourself and pulling up what you find and showing the world. It is, in this sense, beautiful and brave. The deeper one reaches, the better the art. Art which does evoke an emotional response does not come from a deep enough place; thus there is no safety in art. It is the unveiling of truth.
Art is not created out of nothing. Not by staring off into space, hoping for originality. Art is listening to every artist who came before you and then adding your two cents. Art is a response to what she wrote or what they sang or what he depicted. Art is the privelege of conversation.
God is Mystery; Endless and Unknown. But not a mystery to be investigated from outside, or to be wondered at from a distance. Mystery invites us in, to explore and discover from the inside out. We are not left to our own, living in fear of the Unknown. We are called to celebrate and embrace Mystery. To know, to love, to live with Mystery.
When we speak in love, we seek the very best for the person we speak to- we want their highest good, we want them to become and to realize all that God has for them. We too easily (pre)determine the interests of another and judge them by it, and thereby close ourselves to their true interests. If we speak in selfishness, from our own needs or wants or ignorance then we threaten the work of God in that life, and needless to say, in our own life as well.
“The true interests of a person are at once perfectly his own and common to the whole Kingdom of God.” – Thomas Merton
