{"id":797,"date":"2017-03-22T01:17:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T01:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katiepolski.com\/?p=797"},"modified":"2017-03-22T01:17:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T01:17:43","slug":"art-and-peaca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/katiepolski.com\/?p=797","title":{"rendered":"Art and Peaca"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts. A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God\u2014not just as tracts, but as things of beauty to the praise of God.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0– Francis Schaeffer<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not good at producing visual art. I love to write and make music, but when it comes to drawing, painting, sculpting, or creating\u2026well, I have very little ability.\u00a0 As in, a stick figure is a challenge for me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always wanted to be good at these things.\u00a0 There is something so seemingly peaceful about painting a sunset, and when I\u2019m enjoying a beautiful day at the zoo with my youngest, I\u2019m drawn to the painters who have picked out their scene and settled into a comfortable place with their easel and brush.\u00a0 They look so peaceful.<\/p>\n

So, to experience this kind of quiet time, to try to and feel the sensation of putting my emotions onto a sketch bad, I have tried drawing through the years.<\/p>\n

For folks who are stick figure challenged, the problem begins before anything is even on the paper.\u00a0 What do I draw?\u00a0 <\/em>And the question isn\u2019t asked because I\u2019m digging deep into my soul, the question is asked because I literally don\u2019t know what to draw. <\/em>\u00a0\u00a0So, I doodle.\u00a0 And this is what has come from my hand through my adult years (and as you can see, “adult years” may need to be clarified):<\/p>\n

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Interpretation: \u00a0wildflowers (or, according to my eight-year old, a sunflower with a disease)<\/p>\n

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Interpretation: \u00a0super, cool block letters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Interpretation: \u00a0a beach scene. \u00a0duh.<\/p>\n

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Interpretation: \u00a0no idea. \u00a0I have no earthly idea what that is. \u00a0Worms in a bucket?<\/p>\n

And often the doodles found on slips of paper in my Bible or notebooks are of boxes.\u00a0 Because I usually resort to boxes.\u00a0 Because I really can\u2019t draw wildflowers.\u00a0 Or beach scenes.\u00a0 Or worms in buckets.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve mastered the 3-D box. Here is one of my most supreme drawings:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My mother-in-law, on the other hand, is an actual<\/em> artist. \u00a0She’s made some pretty amazing creations, including several unique scrapbooks which I’ve enjoyed looking through over the years. \u00a0I decided to give this art a try when Chris and I were first married.\u00a0 I\u2019d seen her do a number of amazing books, and not only did it seem easy, but it seemed\u2026.fun.<\/p>\n

So, my mother-in-law bought me everything I needed to make my first scrapbook.<\/p>\n

I remember sitting at our kitchen table with the supplies spread around me.\u00a0 I took out photos from our wedding day and I was ready to get creative.\u00a0\u00a0 After an hour, I had accomplished one page.\u00a0 This one page had a picture glued in the middle with the words, \u201cMy Love,<\/em>\u201d written out in those super, cool block letters.\u00a0\u00a0But that\u2019s not all<\/em>.\u00a0 I also had a heart sticker attached to the corner of the picture.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take me long to conclude that scrapbooking was not fun.\u00a0 In fact, not only was it not fun, I decided it was actually an activity from the devil himself.\u00a0 My block letters looked like a note I would have passed to a friend in the hallway during Junior High school, and my picture had glue seeping out the sides. \u00a0Which I tried to hide with the heart sticker. \u00a0Which didn\u2019t work very well.<\/p>\n

After ONE ENTIRE HOUR OF MY LIFE, I had a picture glued to a piece of paper, a sticker, and two block-lettered words across the bottom of the page.\u00a0 Who are these people that do this for relaxation purposes? \u00a0Something strange goes on with these kinds because I only experienced a racing heart and perfuse sweating.<\/p>\n

I never scrapbooked again, folks.\u00a0 That one page was my one and only. \u00a0 I paid my sister to put together a scrapbook of our wedding day.\u00a0 Two things about this:\u00a0 1.\u00a0 It was ridiculously good\u00a0 \u00a02.\u00a0 She said she enjoyed doing it.<\/p>\n

Whatever.<\/p>\n

I put the book on my coffee table and proudly showed it to my mother-in-law when she came to visit.\u00a0 And I may or may not have accepted initial praise for this scrapbook.\u00a0 Which may or may not have led my mother-in-law lovingly purchasing more scrapbook material.\u00a0 Which may or may not have forced me to show my true colors.<\/p>\n

So drawing and scapbooking haven\u2019t worked out too well for me.<\/p>\n

In recent years I’ve tried painting. \u00a0Vincent Van Gogh once said, \u201cIf you hear a voice within you say \u2018you cannot paint,\u2019 then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have a pretty strong voice that says (screams) \u2018you cannot paint\u2026just look at your \u201cdrawings.<\/em>\u2019\u201d Never-the-less, when my youngest asked if we could paint together at a pottery studio, I decided to squelch the voice inside that said, “just watch your\u00a0daughter paint because, well, block letters…”<\/em>\u00a0and I chose to paint some pottery with her. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I picked out a small vase and envisioned filling the blank canvas with flowers and simple words like: love, joy, and peace. \u00a0I envisioned something like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lily picked out a jewelry box in the shape of an ice cream cone.\u00a0 She fretted a few times over some mistakes she made, but the end result was lovely and it looked very much like she intended it to look:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And this, my friends was my end result:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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Yes.\u00a0 Yes, that says \u201cPeaca\u201d instead of \u201cPeace.\u201d \u00a0Yet again, I was sweating profusely out of frustration over my inability to paint flowers on branches, which led to a deeper frustration over my intial \u201ca\u201d in the word peace, which led to over-thinking the letter “a,” which led to my simple word coming out as \u201cPeeka,<\/em>\u201d according to my eight-year old’s pronunciation.<\/p>\n

She couldn\u2019t stop laughing, which subsequently led the young girl at the table behind us to come observe my masterpiece.\u00a0 The little girl tilted her head and said, \u201cIt\u2019s nice.\u00a0 But what does ‘Peaca’ mean<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

Hilarious.\u00a0 Everyone everywhere is hilarious.<\/p>\n

Through much laughter, my\u00a0daughter and I continued our conversation about painting that evening, and I considered two important lessons about art:<\/p>\n

First, I have not been given the gift of producing visual art. \u00a0I just haven’t. \u00a0And this is so, very OK because I can still appreciate<\/em> it. \u00a0I can appreciate art perhaps even more because of my inabilities in this area. \u00a0I’m in awe of those who are gifted in creating, people like my mother-in-law who can paint a scene like this, making you feel like you’re actually in the field.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She said of the painting, “I call it ‘Passenger Side’ Balm, Florida. Imagine a field of cabbage springing up from seed, nourished by God himself and harvested to feed his children. These are the glorious thoughts I think when gazing out the passenger side and seeing the glory of my Father.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s breathtaking, and the fact that someone can move a brush in such a way to create a masterpiece is mind-boggling to me. \u00a0There is no doubt that as believers we\u00a0should<\/em> be appreciating, taking in, considering, and\u00a0enjoying\u00a0<\/em>art. \u00a0After all, our Creator is an artist, making stunning pieces from nothing – a world filled with striking sunsets, strange looking insects, unique shells, magnificent trees, and flowers with depth and complexity.<\/p>\n

It’s all so beautiful. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But\u00a0I also believe there is something equally beautiful about the process<\/em> of creating something. \u00a0It may not be that the end result is perfect. \u00a0The completed vase could have blobs of pink paint instead of flowers and words like “peaca” instead of peace. \u00a0It could. \u00a0But even then, the process has significance. \u00a0The process of becoming captivated by a beautiful day is as wonderful as the art produced because of its beauty; the process of baking a cake for a child’s birthday is as full of love as the sweet dessert once it comes out of the oven; the process of considering different shells on the beach with my eight-year old is as memorable as the necklace she made with the collection; the process of extracting a piece of old wood that someone had left for trash is as important as\u00a0the table that is built and refinished.<\/p>\n

The process has significance. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Whatever your creative expression, both the process and the product should celebrate God and all the things in His creation that He declared to be\u00a0good. \u00a0A<\/em>s artist Melissa Kircher writes:<\/p>\n

“Art brings vibrance and beauty to our lives. Creativity is both a fully human and fully divine experience. It is an acknowledgement that something eternal and full of truth lies behind the temporal world in which we live. It focuses our eyes on the pain around us, the injustice in front of us, the joy abounding within us, and the pull we feel towards meaning and significance. Music moves us. Poetry connects us. Paintings shout at us. Dance energizes us. Art draws us back into the fold of humanity when we wander out full of pain, discouragement, and bitterness. It whispers, ‘You are not alone.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

(www.melissakircher.com)<\/p>\n

I continue to be inspired, maybe you will be too, to think outside the box (the 3-D one in my case) and explore the various ways to engage creatively. \u00a0We are, after all, image-bearers of a creative God. And as I explore, I’m learning to appreciate the many different ways art is produced, but I’m also learning to find\u00a0joy in the process, whether that process brings a sense of peace…or even a little\u00a0peaca. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

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For a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership … <\/p>\n

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