Art has a huge influence in our culture, just as it has throughout history. I'm caused to ask myself, "What power is backing up my own personal artwork?"
I was reading in Isaiah the other day and the following passage stood out to me in a way that focused less on idol worship and more on the hands behind the idol. Isaiah 44:9a,10-11a "All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold all his companions will be put to shame, and the craftsman are only human." The one who makes the idol is a "craftsman" or artist and he is only a human. Anything that is made has no power unless God's Spirit enables it to have power. And why would God's Spirit be in a something that goes against who He is? Yet cast idols in general, goes to show how much influence art does have in a culture, to be able to persuade people's spirits, beliefs, and worship. It can be scary to think about, because without being careful the art I create could fall into the category of being "profitable for nothing." Even leading people into lies and bondage, whether I realize it or not. Surely if God is behind the artwork it can have purpose, power, and persuasion that goes beyond what one could imagine with their own "only human" artwork. I sat down to draw, but "couldn't" for the life of me!! Everything I drew didn't appeal to me; it just wasn't good.
I kept asking myself, "What is wrong with me?!" About to give up and put the sketchbook down, I drew this cat. "Yes," I thought, "this one is cute!" After thinking about what could cause me to be able to draw great one day and then miserably the next, I figured out what makes the difference. Everytime I sit down to draw I have the same skills, the same eyes, the same imagination, what I first put on the paper is awesome, I love it, nothing is wrong with it....yet. Then the first of many mistakes appears, and here is where one day is different from the next, how will I deal with it? Start over? Give up? Or work from it? The days anyone is a good artist are the days they work from it. Turn it into something outside of what you originally wanted to see on the paper. I was drawing this picture while talking with Sam about our travel plans for our future; where we wanted to go, who we want to be. I was feeling a little overwhelmed thinking about all that, excited too, but mostly unsure. So to make myself feel better and in order to keep the right focus, I put a Bible verse on there: "The heart of a man (or woman) plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps" ~Proverbs 16:9
Sure enough, the next day we ended up changing our plans unexpectedly and were back on the road a few months earlier than we thought we would be, only to end up at YWAM (Youth With a Mission) Oxford, New Zealand. It was such an amazing period of peace for us to be around like minded people. It was a long awaited rejuvenation we didn't even know we needed. And it all started with being open to the LORD's leading. Openness through prayer; openness through my artwork, as if artwork was in some way, praying. I don't draw in Pastel much because it smudges so easily and is hard to store, but the colors are worth it. These I did a while back, one I gave to my good friend Meredith. And the very colorful one I drew from a photograph by Abbey Knoff, because I thought it was just too beautiful.
.....with a little bit of artistic licence of course, but the clouds did form a sort of swirl around the moon.
I drew this right after we saw it, right when we got home. I had planned on keeping it in the back of my mind for a few days like usual, but when I picked up my sketchbook last night, the next thing I knew, I had a drawing of our walk! Then this morning in my Scripture reading I read, "Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me for I have redeemed you." ~Isaiah 44:21-22 |
A little about me:
My sketchbook is like a museum of things I've captured from my brain.
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