Together We Can!

Being an artist is brutal.  Our work is consigned to a relative world.  Mostly it is judged, dismissed, or misunderstood by those without “ears to hear" or "eyes to see.”  Its potential influence is sidelined.  At best.  At least that is how it feels. Yet heaven and earth will pass before the words of God do.

Artists need each-other.  Sort of like prophets in the Scriptures, artists have a strong dual need for both isolation and community.  Often simultaneously.  Too much isolation leads to burn out and even despair.  Too much community leads to soft edges where hard lines are needed.

Artist communities may seem at first like an oxymoron.  Introverted, independent people don’t really “do” community.  They certainly don’t do it like others.  To survive it must be intentional.  Purpose-filled.  Quiet and focused.  These are the pillars and heart of an artist community.

In some ways it is very similar to those in recovery.  “Recovery communities” understand the need for each other.  It is NOT periphery.  It is essential.  But each one must still does their work.  There are no shortcuts.  No easy passes.  Yet they know they are doing it together. The work of recovery is grueling. 

So is creative work.

In order to be outstanding, we need the help of others.  Others with a similar vision for life.  With a desire to create.  And recreate.  To become the thing they were meant to be.  We need people serious about their intention.  Focused.  Willing to walk along.  Determined.

With that help, we are opened to new possibilities.  The light gets stronger.  When two or more can see what is not yet there, there is validation.  More, perspective.  Together WE begin to chisel away at the vision.  We know there is something quite powerful there.

We work.  And work.  And work.  And others start to see it.  That sustains us.  Even though we must enter the cauldron of isolation at times, we know others are going there too.  We can push through.  Our work does matter.  Lives really do depend on it.

Art and beauty can be the difference between quality and mere survival.

Life without quality is not yet life.  That is the position of the creative arts.  We are not a social program, feeding people or providing shelter.  We are not an emergency relief service.  Though these things are very important!  We don’t help people survive.  That is true.

The arts, done right, help people thrive.

In that way it is a language.  A way of seeing the world.  The arts are decidedly focused on the gaps.  The little things that go missing.  The simple reflections.  Not a political treatise or an academic journal, the arts are a language for the people drawn from a palate anyone can know.

Now elitism can certainly creep in.  And does.  People want to hoard the gift.  Make it exclusive.  Be the only.  Or the first.  But in reality, that is all secondary to the work of the Spirit. Artists must not get caught up in all that.  Artists must not cater, lest they lose the power of their gift.

Artists are either doing what is genuinely inside them OR not.  Look out!  When creatives actually do go after that thing inside them, the whole earth trembles.  The heavens shake.  Because that thing, intentionally left undone until now, was put inside them before creation.

The Creator is putting the universe back together.  We do not create the plan, we simply do our little part.  In beautiful ways.  In creative ways.  In unique ways.  We are invited to reflect particular rays of God’s eternal glory. Indeed, we are called to help finish God’s creative work in the world, together.