It has been a little difficult to live up to my blogging promises. Preparation for applying to graduate school and studying for and taking that infamous GRE (not to mention household duties and being a good wife to my hubby and mommy to my son!) have really consumed my time. We’ve also visited with a lot of company over the latter part of last week, including both of my sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, cousins, Baylor friends, and nieces and nephews! So, this post is going to be rather laconic (there’s a good GRE word for you!), but I figured it would be better to post something than nothing at all!
Recently, I have felt really called to cultivate my artistic skills. I had a lot of latent artistic talent as a child, so my discerning mother, recognizing my gift, encouraged me to take painting and drawing classes at a local art school. I dabbled in art until I went to college, but then almost completely abandoned it in order to focus on school and horses. Before our wedding last summer, I decided to pick up my brush again and do a painting for a surprise gift for Caleb. Then, in March 2011, I had the privilege of traveling to NYC to participate in IAM’s Encounter 11.
I guess I abandoned my artistic pursuits, for a time, partially because I didn’t think it was practical (and studying dead languages is obviously very practical, haha). But art is a gift, and when we start to measure it in terms of pragmatism and economic potential, we end up missing it entirely. Lewis Hyde’s The Gift is a great read elaborating this point.
Nevertheless, art has much tangible benefit. Consider these closing words of NT Wright in his seminal work, Simply Christian.
What I want to propose, as we reach the end of this book, is that the church should reawaken its hunger for beauty at every level. This is essential and urgent. It is central to Christian living that we should celebrate the goodness of creation, ponder its present brokenness, and, insofar as we can, celebrate in advance the healing of the world, the new creation itself. Art, music, literature, dance, theater, and many other expressions of human delight and wisdom, can all be explored in new ways.
The point is this. The arts are not the pretty but irrelevant bits around the border of reality. They are highways into the center of a reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way. The present world is good, but broken and in any case incomplete; art of all kinds enables us to understand that paradox in its many dimensions.
The artist can then join forces with those who work for justice and those who struggle for redemptive relationships, and together encourage and sustain those who are reaching out for a genuine, redemptive spirituality. The way to make sense of it all is to look ahead. Look to the coming time when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge and glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea’ and then live in the present in the light of that promise, sure that it will come fully true because it was already fulfilled when God did for Jesus at Easter what he is going to do for the whole of creation. Gradually we are glimpsing a truth which cannot be overemphasized: that the tasks which await us as Christians, the paths we must walk and the lessons we must learn, are part of the great vocation which reaches us in God’s word -- the word of the gospel, the world of Jesus and the Spirit. We are called to be part of God’s new creation, called to be agents of that new creation here and now. We are called to model and display that new creation in symphonies and family life, in restorative justice and poetry, in holiness and service to the poor, in politics and painting.
Even when I do not feel like I have much to offer in the way of my art, I continue to order my life to create space for creativity. And art truly is not restricted to painting: symphonies, family, justice, service, and politics are all manifestations of human creativity, modeling Christ’s redemptive power in the here and now.
I hope to be an artist one day, in whatever manner I am called to create.
I wanted to share with you a sampling of my artwork. Usually, I am somewhat shy to share my work. Probably, this stems from insecurity -- that I am not “good enough.” But that misses the point, doesn’t it? As a dear friend of Caleb and mine pointed out when we visited him last week, all of our creative attempts will be eclipsed by the glorious Beauty we will encounter one day, vis-à-vis.
~ 1998
When I was around ten, I worked in an oil painting class. This is one of my favorite paintings that I did at that time.
~ 2002
An oil painting I did in high school.
2010
These are some preliminary sketches that I did before making Caleb’s painting for our wedding.
Caleb's painting, in progress.
2012
Sketches done during Aidan's afternoon catnaps.
2012
And, my recent baking endeavors.
Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 01:18AM 
