Making Art: From the Inside Out

Seeing (in its broadest and deepest sense) imprints us and changes us. It may even become the way we think. But seeing, however active or passive, may not be the only way of engaging beauty or being shaped and formed by art in the visible, external world. We are not only viewers of art; we are also makers of art, engaged with the creation of art objects ourselves. Each act of creation is a spiritual exercise, strengthening or honing us in particular ways, making us more and more into who we shall become and how we understand ourselves in relation to the rest of the created world. - Robin M. Jensen

From Memory to Form

Making art is a creative act that draws its inspiration from the external world, incorporates the images in the memory, draws upon active mind, and produces a visible image that points far beyond itself. In other words, it is a type of spiritual formation. Because of our environment, our memories, and our visions, we are constantly in flux: our formation is continual. Creation and formation are a process; we don't suddenly arrive at our completion (at least not in this life). Artists are restless people, always at work, doing the same thing again and again, or moving on to the next project. Their discoveries are not endings, only openings. The opening chapter of the book of Genesis recalls this idea of restless repetition in the creative process. In the beginning, God created again-a second day, a third, a fourth, and so on. The text itself has a rhythmic repetition: "And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."

This God-like delight in the work, even when it seems repetitive, is where I believe the creative life and the spiritual life find their common joy. For however hard or frustrating or physically taxing it is, true artists are unable to give up striving for "the perfect expression." In retrospect, the striving itself is the source of the deep joy and satisfaction, far more than the result. With each success, the artist will set herself or himself a more challenging task, as if satisfaction or achievement were the ignition rather than the brake. We are inspired to push on, not to stop and rest on our laurels. Sabbath is still ahead of us.
-Robin M. Jensen

Beauty and Beholders: A Trend

Why is it that we find visual art so problematic in the church? Why do we accept comforting stained glass or banners with slogans, but would be shocked to have neon splashed across our pulpits?

Perhaps we recall the aesthetics of an itinerant preacher's revivalist tent, or perhaps the early Puritan and Quaker influences are the roots of our lack of awareness about the visual elements of worship. Too often the lack of works of visual art in the place of worship is a reflection of a lack of interest, rather than a careful creation of space according to the canons of aesthetic minimalism. Too many churches reflect a lack of care and coldness that none of us would tolerate in our homes.
- Nancy Chinn

Imagine

The problem that has affected the church down through the ages with regard to art can be put simply: How much of life is Christ to be Lord over? Is he only interested in that part of life we think of as religious or spiritual? Or is he interested in every facet of our lives-body, soul, mind and spirit? The sort of art we make will illustrate our answer.

Liturgical Needs of the Contemporary Church

The challenge of today's churches must be embedded in their liturgical life. That challenge is to live courageously with compassionate and critical stances toward the realities of social and personal life, and to be concerned with the constructive and envisioning work to which the Gospel calls us in collaboration with our neighbors, at home and abroad. In the liturgy, where the church's theology and mission expressed and understood, the principal motivation for pioneering change will be found. - Janet Walton

The Use of Visual Arts in the Church

With these wise words, the Roman Catholic Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy helps begin a discussion on art, the artist and the church. "God does not need liturgy; people do, and the people have only their own arts and styles of expression with which to celebrate." (Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, #4) Often neglected, or relegated to triviality, the visual arts are an important element of liturgy. Through visual arts, the church proclaims and celebrates a diversity of cultures, and expands its ability to respond to the Word of God spoken to us today.

How have visual arts been used in Christian tradition? What are some of the hesitations and fears that we as artists and we as church have about each other? How might an artist at the dawn of a new century create new art for the church? What does art have to do with worship or social change? - Nancy Chinn

Art as Sacrament

Can we, as artists in the church, take a different stance toward art? In the art world, it is a challenge to turn our back on the modernist, heroic, belligerent ego of the isolate, whose work is often marked with skepticism and a dreary, cheerless, calculated approach to marketing a product, Can we embrace our own deep hunger for the real, for mystery, for freedom, and turn away from the siren of the compulsive consumption in our society?

Can we move toward embracing the paradox of the opposite as a way to relate to the other? Can we listen? Can we hone our ability to respond, and not simply react, or crush, or consume or exploit? Can we teach others an aesthetic of compassion, and find new ways to bring that alive?

To be an artist can be about expanding the human experience with the gift of imagination-to activate not only our own imaginations, but to find ways to invite the community to learn to exercise its own imagination, to honor the gift and its spark of divinity, wonderment and vision.

For the church, the challenge is a prophetic call to use art today in a very different way. can the church use art as a model for relationship and as a way to create community? can the church consider the artist in new ways, and liberate the artist from the confines of religious aesthetics, from slick and easy solutions to complex work, and honor-the struggle and sheer energy it takes to create anything? Can we the church open ourselves to change, as to a gift, celebrating the blessings of diversity and the growth of flexibility as we face new ways of seeing? If so, the church and the artist will find that art, the work of human hands and hearts, is a sacrament of divine artistry, a sign of the One who not only makes all things, but makes all things new. - Nancy Chinn

The Artist as Cultural Worker

It is not enough for the artist in the church to be a good designer. I now call myself a cultural worker, and the focus of my work is visual culture. What do people see? And how do they see it? Time and time again, I see the excitement as a project begins to focus, and all the diverse talents brought to the project by the participants begin to forma constellation. The secret is that this focus is supplied by the presence of the artist among the people.

Art is not, as we are taught by our institutions and our culture, only about making things. It is about using materials to take notice of God at work among us now and here, in this time and place. And when working in temporary media - seasonal environments - we might also expect that what we learn now is not what we will learn the next time that we ask the same questions. The nature of the materials and of the project suggests that we are oriented toward a process - a kind of process theology of the arts! Art becomes not so much an object as an encounter, an event. The resulting product embodies the event. The artist animates and organizes and encourages the participation of all who respond to the invitation to encounter divine mystery through art. -Nancy Chinn