The world around you is continuously communicating. From the sounds floating from the car radio or the Spotify playlist, to the advertising screaming at you from billboards and magazines. Even nature is in on the act. Psalm 19 tells us ‘the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.’
As an artist, I am primarily about communicating through visuals, pictures, colours and words. In this article I want to address an often-misunderstood part of being an artist and a Christian. I think evangelicals can get confused as to what art is for, and therefore how it is used. As evangelicals, we pride ourselves on being ‘people of the word’, which is no wrong thing, but it can easily spring into a suspicion of other forms of communication which, unlike words, don’t offer the same opportunities to clarify and caveat meaning.
Art is one such expression. Art can be ambiguous. It asks more questions than it answers. In a culture which prioritises direct, word-based evangelism and asks whether something has ‘gospel value’, art can end up being viewed as ‘less than’, like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Here’s why I think it’s essential to express ourselves and learn through art, not just for what it can communicate, but for itself, as the act of creation showing something fundamental about who we are and who God is.
Art is an Expressive Medium
Marshall McLuhan, the communication theorist, is famous for his ‘The medium is the message’ statement. There is something very profound here. It’s not just about the message, but the medium we use to express it.
Why art? Well, God values art. Creator is the first thing we learn about him in Genesis 1. God didn’t need to create such an extravagantly beautiful universe; it could have been merely functional but the fact that beauty, complexity and colour are used shows us something about the vast and glorious character of God.
God specifically gifts people in the Bible to enable them to create things and places of beauty. Did you know the first person said to receive the Spirit of God recorded in Scripture is Bezalel, an artist? In Exodus 31 God says, ‘I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills – to make artistic designs’ (Ex. 31:3-4).
Art is a universal language. It doesn’t need words to express something fundamental about our world. Psalm 19 shows us that. The medium is the message. We are co-opted into God’s creative plans for this world through the arts as well as language.
Art is an act of faith
What is it that we are expressing when we create art? I think art is an act of faith. When my children were younger we created a large canvas – glittery, colourful and chaotic – with those very words.
Creativity is an unknown entity which can’t be formulated, predicted or even adequately explained. When confronted with a piece of art which comforts or provokes us, we can’t help but recognise and reflect on the creativity necessary for this. ‘How did they come up with that?’ we muse. I’m not sure the artist can tell you either. Yes, there is work, discipline and practice, but the moment of creativity where the piece takes on a life of its own and the sense that this colour or brushstroke works but this one doesn’t, isn’t easily explainable.
Isn’t that representative of aspects of God? We have words, systems and ways of thinking about him and faith but nothing fully describes the vastness of who God is and how, through belief in Jesus, we become united to him, and how that transforms our lives. If we had found a way to distil the entirety of our faith into easy slogans there wouldn’t be so many books, pieces of art, music, theatre and dance grappling with these eternal themes. Art expresses the beauty and complexity of life and faith.
In the pursuit of clarity, we may be guilty of turning complexity into reduced slogans. We may have lost some of the nuance, mystery and wonder. No wonder many artists struggle within evangelical settings. Unless their work is a nice visual gospel presentation, or something with a cross on it, we’re told, ‘I don’t get it.’ Some of that is just personality. Not everyone likes or ‘gets’ art but let’s not relegate art to either being ‘a bit odd’ or a tool of propaganda.
Art is spacious. It asks questions and doesn’t necessarily give you all or any answers. That can make evangelicals uncomfortable, which is odd given Jesus’ proclivity to answer questions with more questions.
Art is a God-given gift which takes both the maker of it and the viewer further into ideas of what it is to be human in this world. It can raise important questions. Who are we? Who is God? Do we matter? What is important to us? Does that relate to God in any way? How should we care about others? What does it mean to be a conscious being trying to understand the divine with our limited capacity?
Art reaches the human soul
It’s not just non-believers who need art but the church too. Art cannot be relegated to sloganism or a way to shoehorn the gospel into the viewer’s eyes. We all need art because we are all human, wanting to connect with a realm we have little language for. Some of us will have more language with our systematic and biblical theologies but being confronted with art helps in part to keep us open and curious to a lifelong relationship with the Triune God of the universe, infinite, holy, loving and not-quite graspable.
So much of the art I create has spiritual themes, not because I think it is necessary to prove I am both Christian and artist, but because I am human. I want to avoid the sacred/secular divide. My musings and faith impact my life and therefore the art I create. I am asking and sometimes attempting to answer my own questions, which also tend to be universal questions.
Art is a form of truth-telling but it is also a way of showing us that this is not all there is. There are things too wonderful to explain which can only be hinted at, using the God-given senses, to help us glimpse the transcendent.
Art has a way of reaching the human soul, by design, to encourage us to contemplate our mortal lives and what they mean, where they originate from and where they are going.
Far from merely being a means to an end, art is part of the bigger picture and means of grace given to us all to enable us to glimpse further into who we are, and then, who this great God that loves us is.
