Personal Philosophy - Part II

17 August 2005 22:23:49

As I stated previously, much of my own worldview stems from the theory that my life inherently portrays the love and grace of Christ because he lives in me. To me it would seem that if I have asked Jesus into my life and the Holy Spirit has become one with my soul/spirit, then it is impossible for my life not to reflect Christ. Granted, even after I ask Christ to become my savior, I can choose to live by my own ways and not his, but that’s a different issue. If I am choosing to live in the life God has given to me, then my actions and words will be those of Christ, not of me.

As a young art student, I often ran into a dilemma when considering the content of a new piece of art. If I’m a Christian, my art should be about God, right? Yet, taking the previous paragraph into account, anything I do is about God. I’m not creating a piece of art to give glory my creative appetite (believe me, I am quite aware of my limited talent—there’s always someone better than I am!) I’m creating art to give glory to the physical world around me, the world that my God spoke into existence so long ago.

Yet, art isn’t just an imitation of the simple things we see everyday; rather, an artists always offers a bit of interpretation in a work. There is no such thing as a direct and literal replication of the world around. Not even a photograph can offer a full perception of the scene where it was taken. A simple example of this is the fact that there is no sound or smell in a photo. It is only a visual imitation of a specific point in time.

As for my art, I tend to take simple things I see around me—an alleyway or path through the woods, the way a house sits on the corner lot, the repetitive shapes in a bridge—and extract their visual essence while at the same time organizing these abstracted visual elements into a harmonious arrangement.

This, I believe is similar to the way Christ sees us. We are imperfect. Fundamentally, this reality is flawed. But Christ sees our essence, our core, the beautiful beings we were designed to be. His goal for our lives here in the short 80 or so years we have is to arrange them into a harmonious arrangement—the Church.

Wow, I think I’m going to stop here. There’s just too much here to get into tonight. A good start though.