My spiritual life has a great impact on my creative life, and vice versa. Recently I’ve been revolving around a couple of aspects of this relationship between the spiritual and the artistic. As a child growing up in a conservative Christian denomination, I was never discouraged from drawing or painting. Still, the church environment itself was always very sterile. No fancy windows, no pictures on the walls, sometimes not even a cross at the front.
As an adult artist still participating in the church, there are strange dichotomies within the Protestant church that still affect me. On one hand, my beliefs provide inspiration. Biblical literature is full of the struggle and the sublime. The stories often have miraculous components and use descriptive words that paint vivid pictures for our imaginations to run with. The Jewish tabernacle, for instance, is described in great detail. Every kind of precious metal, rare stone and fine wood and textile was used. This was a place built to remind people of God’s glory and authority. Every last detail was important.
On the other hand, the history of the Protestant church and where it has led us today, especially in the United States, causes me to struggle. Image has become idol. The influence of Puritanism is still strong even today. Church walls are blank. Buildings are utilitarian. Why are we not responding creatively in our spiritual lives if we think we were made in the image of the Creator? This absence of creativity has crossed over into other areas as well. King David wrote most of the book of Psalms, a collection of poems and songs 150 chapters long. Where are our poems? What kinds of songs are we writing?
I want to push against both sides of this, to chase the sublime, supernatural beauty while also critiquing this attitude of fear. There is a paradox here of the beautiful and the ridiculous and I keep going back and forth, pulling things out and putting them under my microscope.
(Featured image is “Sublime” by E.J. Cobb.)
Art For The Everyman 