I Know Me and Not Me

I have found that one of the surest signs that I am making art is that the idea or concept seems to leap to me from somewhere in me that I cannot necessarily identify as me.  Craftsmanship, while very important to the making of art, comes from me in the form of diligence applied to material and the elements and principles of design.  However that does not make art!  Art seems to come from a complete mystery.  Another mystery is that the same equation seems to apply when I see true art, my ability to identify it seems to spring from somewhere that I am quite sure is not me. 

detail of my work, "Reliquary To The Word Fly"

Why I Make Art

In a discussion of art yesterday one of my students quoted an artist’s statement that art lets humans know what it means to have meaning.  This morning I read that D. S. Savage said art “is a vision of experience informed by meaning.”  I am sitting in the dark morning on my back porch reading The Ancient Word and having a cup of coffee.  The cup is beautifully hand made by someone I admire very much.  This cup has given meaning to my morning that coffee does not give and I want to share that possibility of meaning with others. 

What Am I Doing Here?

As one ages we begin to be much more inspective of our motives and causes because we know, time wasted is foolish. Every action is weighed on the scale of service.  Who or what will this act serve and will that service we worth the physical price of our action?  It is a common theme to tack as many services into each action as our mental ability will devise.  And there lies a conundrum, age not only brings physical limitations but also tacks mental lapses onto it so that we often find ourselves physically present without a clue why we’re there.   

The Semester's Burden

For me each semester starts by picking up a tremendous burden; the truth that art making is one of the most sincere ways by which God brings Himself into personal relationship with man.  I know the truth of this as surely as I know that rain is now falling on the roof of my porch.  What makes the burden more difficult is the extent by which the Christian community has relegated the arts to little more than excess frivolity.  Over time this has created an ethos in the young Christian art student that art is a hobby, not a means by which God makes Himself known.  The burden lies in the task of disposing of this accepted heresy while also trying to encourage the depth of meaning in art making that true faith not only allows but also demands.  Art is capable of carrying the ideas of God however most humans are unable to bear up under the burden of commitment that truth requires.  This is the burden of each semester.  

Betty took this picture of an example of the truth of this blog.

The Gratitude Of A Coffee Cup Of Cool Water

I believe art to be humans attempt to articulate gratefulness in response to the mountains, the great rivers, the sun and moon, the plains and earth and stars.  But one soon knows that no art can adequately satisfy the bar of gratitude the earth and heavens raise.  What are we to do?  I have found there is but one solace for the artist sitting in front of his creation; seeing past it to The Maker of the heavens and the earth.  I have found this to be the greatest joy of my studio practice, and thankfully the Only reason for it.

In that vein I find the offering of a beautiful hand made cup synonymous to “the cup of cool water”, equally able to allow us to be in His image.    

River thoughts from our beloved Fair Haven