To CREATE is to reach into deep places within ourselves and others.
“I’ve learned that art can sometimes reach into places deep inside where my brain simple cannot go.” Terry Glaspey, Discovering God Through the Arts.
Art is something you have to rest in before you can create it. Make friends with your new image or idea. Get to know it. It’s like examining a beautiful vase. You turn it 360 degrees, upside down, and right-side up again; then you fix your eyes so close to the interior that you can practically smell the glazing. After you give it that kind of attention, you are better equipped to fill it and fulfill it.
Art is something that will cost you dearly to create. It will cost you time, energy, ingenuity, but most of all, it will require a piece of your soul, because if you aren’t willing to share yourself, why are you doing it all?
Art is something that won’t bend to your hands without humbling you first. Surely you can make something pretty just because you can, and yes, that works fine. But deep inside, you want your time at the keyboard, dance studio, piano, or canvas to count, mean something and make a difference somehow. Often, to compose that poem, choreograph that dance, strike that chord, or brush that palette, the real you will have to emerge, and that can be humbling. In our case, as Great Commission Artists, we take that a step further and say, as John the Baptist said, “I must decrease, and He (Jesus) must increase.”
Yes, art reaches into our deep soul places brimming with all sorts of experiences, memories, hopes, and dreams. But don’t ignore what’s broken, dark, or even disheveled. For therein lies the ultimate purpose and satisfaction of creating something extraordinary.
© Marianne McDonough, 2024