Objects of Grace (CIVA)

(excerpts from text)

Conversations of Creativity & Faith by James Romaine  ©2002

SANDRA BOWDEN

Art is not merely illustration, but the illumination of unseen realities. Paul Klee said that “Art does not reproduce the visible, rather, it makes visible.”

… there are many in the art world who will have nothing to do with Christianity. The prevailing view in the arts community embraces the use of religious symbolism and imagery only if it questions its own validity.  Artists coming from a sincere position of faith are viewed as suspect.

If we are to be engaged in the cultural dialogue, the artists of the Christian community must continue to produce work so compelling it cannot be ignored.

Appleyard suggests that we are at a cross-roads in our cultural life and the way we deal with “content.” He states that Modernism’s “heresy was formalism,” which suppressed content.  But interest in content is on the rise, even for secularists.

Leon Alberti, the most important art theorist of the Italian Renaissance, said, “Without beauty, God cannot manifest Himself.”  The challenge to the artist whose creativity is rooted in faith is to find inventive ways to show forth this beauty and meaning in their art.

Each creation reveals another question or uncovers a new direction that in turn gives birth to the next work…. The process of art making is a great teacher.

From the Reformation on, the church has put ears before eyes, viewed art as peripheral rather than central to conveying the gospel, and placed symbol above sacrament.  Art has been viewed as decorative rather than substantive.

Art serves as a point of departure, a kind of visual pilgrimage.  Both formal and narrative elements can offer a place of meditation, a focus for contemplation where we are invited to dwell in God’s presence.

MARY MCCLEARY

I’m skeptical when artists seek to justify any form of art as “expressing themselves.”  I would run out of things to say in thirty seconds if I had only myself to express, because I’m finite.

I believe the best art is about things bigger than we are: the created world, shared experiences of being human, the great ideas and events of history. This is why I recommend a strong liberal arts education, lots of art history as well as studio classes to anyone interested in a career in art.

Mystery: You have to allude to certain things; try and come in the back door when the front door is closed.  But you don’t just illustrate ideas.

JOEL SHEESLEY

I’m always hesitant to say that my faith gives me a different way of looking at things because, if that were really true, why wouldn’t it be fantastic and world-changing? 

The Bible encourages us toward thinking about the artistic process in terms of cultural rather than divine terms.

JOHN SILVIS

Modernists of the twentieth century had great faith in progress and hoped that we could transcend many limitations faced by past eras and cultures.  Today, however, I think that artists hold a much more cynical view of life and the future.

My work doesn’t portray a specific image of God. It focuses on people and our relationships.  In that way it points to God.  I think it celebrates the uniqueness of each individual, made in the image of God.

EDWARD KNIPPERS

There is also action without physical movement, such as thought and prayer. The narrative can provide significant activity that places the aesthetic presence of the human form in a larger context than the figure alone will allow.

The aim of the artist should not be the “new.”  A work is stronger if it grows out of a history of representation as the artist comes to grips with the traditional in relation to our own time.

My aim as an artist is to be “true” not “new.”  If I aim at the truth and make the work as strong as I can, on as many levels as I can, then the rest will take care of itself.

It is my work and I am expressed in what I make, but that is not the point. Art making should not simply be self-expression.  It should be something larger than that.

Importance of the life-size scale of work:  If the scale of the work is small, then the viewer is completely in control of it.  On the scale in which I generally work, the painting overwhelms the viewer.  I hope that my work confronts the viewer with a fully formed person who therefore has some aspect that is familiar to the viewer and yet at the same time is fresh and new.

A better attitude, one more in line with scriptures, would be for artists to acknowledge their weaknesses and allow God to work through them…. George Braque said “I find my greatest creativity in my greatest limitations.”  Life always has limits.

I paint right on the panels.  I usually have a theme that I am going to try and work out.  I set a stage and try to convey a sense of physicality.  I ask artistic questions like, “Where do I want the weight to be?  High up in the picture plane, above the viewer?”  Once you orchestrate all of that you aren’t in control anymore.  The Lord has to be in control.

The viewer may not know anything about the Bible or the narrative being worked out in the painting.  But I have to make the image strong enough that they want to find out about it—it must have a powerful enough presence so that the viewer can’t easily forget the encounter.  Then, I’ve done my job.