Rachel's Viewfinder

My art is my life. It’s often said that art is about art for art’s sake. Yet I create with a medium that has a message. As a believer, the message is the same: “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” My art exists to put flesh to “the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Everything is about relating the message, “the Kingdom of Heaven is near,” through art, life, practice and expression. I desire to engage other Christian artists in living out the Great Commission through the arts. Join me in this declaration of the Father's love!

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Arts, Faith and Inspiration, pt 4 “Intention”

This past Easter, some friends at SIM invited Robert and me to their church’s Good Friday service. It was called “Tenebrae.” Erika described it as a very solemn service, quiet and candlelit. And, they used music, scripture reading, and art to lead worship and contemplation at the service. We accepted the invitation, and I excitedly looked forward to the service. A service with Art! I couldn’t wait to see what was in store.

Good Friday came, and we went to the service. It was indeed dark, solemn, and in a way, mournful, and rightfully so. It’s the day we celebrate the death of our Lord. And as I said to Robert with tears in my eyes after service, “We can’t have a resurrection without a death.” I left the service very quiet and hardly talked the whole way home.

Perhaps it was the visuals. The darkness and the candlelight helped. So did the solemn songs of sorrow. But the Art. Images from the hands of the old master painters, images of death, sorrow, agony, pain…and love. Combined with the scripture reading, the impact was powerful. It was like seeing the Bible come alive!

The Art used at “Tenebrae” took time to create. Time to plan and execute. Time to ponder. Inspired by scripture, the masters intentionally created emotionally and spiritually-driven Art. Whether commissioned by the church, or painting of their own inspiration, the intended impact still hit me like a ton of bricks: our glorious Lord gave Himself for us in love. And I could now, through the painters, see that love on His face.

The beauty of Art is that it can stand in time. A sculpture can be seen in a glance, a painting for a second. And yet a fine piece of Art can keep one gazing and contemplating long after the first impression. But to make that happen, it takes time! Even those crazy paintings I don’t fully understand by Klee and Pollack…those took time to create. They took intention.

I believe that Art will soon become an important part of the Protestant church. Human beings need to express themselves through art. As created beings, made in the image of our Creator, we must create. While the mechanism by which Art is incorporated into our worship is still to be fully defined or even tried, above all, I believe the Art used in worship must be intentional. Even a painting that looks like a Pollack has a place. But it must be intentional. Intentionally worshipful of and to our God and King. Because only then will others also be encouraged to worship.

(Part 4 in a sometimes weekly series on Arts, Faith and Inspiration)