February 22, 2010
On its Own Merits
I have a friend who is incredibly gifted in carving and his finished pieces sell for a handsome sum. I am in awe of his craftsmanship; that is until he starts talking about his creation. It’s then that the beauty before me becomes smeared with ego, draped with pride and flawed with boasting. It makes me think about going to a museum and spending hours appreciating the old masters. Maybe we should be glad those artists aren’t alive and standing beside their work explaining every stroke of the brush. It strikes me that our craft of serving in the Kingdom just might be held in higher regard if we too would simply remove ourselves and let the work be appreciated on its own merits.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Art must look, sound, taste, or smell like something of common experience, otherwise there is no docking point for its interpretation. Even the splattered and mixed blotches and runs of abstract art rely upon the common emotional influences of colors, lines, angles, curves, and dots. The artist’s mission is to deliver a message, whether it be as subtle as mood, or as pointed as an idea. I greatly admire their ability to deliver.
-----But it is hard for me to keep my contempt for artists under control, let alone not to have it at all. It is the artist’s delivery of self that bothers me most. They are always about “letting what I feel flow onto the canvas”. And in a way, that is quite to be expected. A person can only feel what he feels himself; he can only imagine what someone else feels. So to express feeling he must reference his own. That’s all well and good. But how careful has the artist been to tether his own feelings to what is actually real? In a twisted, distorted place like this world, reality must be carefully, even painstakingly sought. Otherwise you simply metabolize deception into the self. Like a roller-coaster, there is more feeling in twist and distortion. These fly free of straight and guarded. Those are no fun! The world is led astray by artists.
-----I like to stand beside Job when I admire art. I like to let God’s word to him reverberate through my head while I try to understand what the artist says. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding...Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place...? Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?” No. You’re just another guy with a paintbrush or drumstick. Anyone else to whom God gave as much talent could do just as well. So where is the call for pride? It is God who wove the delicate filament of truth through this world’s colossal mural of deceit. Should the pride not be felt for Him? And what accomplishment is there in reflecting the abundance of deceit? Why should it not be only in grasping the filament? These are for God to judge and others to admire. And although I greatly admire the abilities of any skilled artist, I only honor those which reflect His filament.
-----Reflections are built into the social mind only by common experience. The more art portrays the lewd and untethered, the more risqué society becomes. It is somewhat like the sticks Jacob laid in front of the breeding herds. Hollywood claims it only portrays social life. Its claim is false. Art structures social attitude by making moods and ideas common. And the artists’ self pride kills society’s spiritual immune system as effectively as HIV does the body‘s.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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