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Ahoy, and happy summer! As classes have ceased, my life has become a tad less busy. Of course, work persists, but I have now managed to squeeze in a few moments to do a little artwork, catch up with some friends, and - YES - clean up around the house. Having given our closet a veritable overhaul, I have come across more than a few pieces of artwork that, for some reason or another, I never got around to posting online. So here they are! Or at least here are some of them. And diverse they are - shoot, there's even a collage in there! I'd like to post some drawings and sketches from yesteryear as well, but that will have to wait for later.
Still, I suppose the above images aren't that old, as far as art goes, though there is one image up there that I originally created almost 10 years ago (can you guess which one?)!
In fact, I almost hesitated to post this work, thinking, "man, people don't wanna see OLD stuff - the whole point of a blog is to keep on updating on the newest, freshest batch of whatever!" But within that reasoning lurks a subtle deception that many of us, at least many artists, easily fall victim too. "The world moves like mad,*" says the song, and rightly so. But the pressure we feel, fed by a results-oriented culture, becomes in my estimate a formidable foe within us that undercuts the creative drive itself! If you're out there struggling with the tension between "needing" creative results and desiring the experience of real creativity, ignore the counterfeit urgency and get back to what made you an artist in the first place: the beholding and appreciation of that which is beautiful. In Genesis 1:1, after God has finished creating everything, humanity included, he says "it is good." This is not a "goodness" of utility, as if God thought, "I bet all of creation would make a wonderful theme park - we'll make a fortune!" No, instead I believe that the "goodness" innate in young Earth, in pure humanity, is what we sometimes call beauty. Not the monopolized "beauty" strewn across magazine racks, but the beauty that seems to rest in unlikely places - a beauty that, when confronting us, moves us deeply. In other words, aspects of life and nature are not good because we can gain something from them, but rather we gain true riches when we simply marvel at them. People don't "stop and smell the roses," so to speak, because they think it may somehow be a profitable activity. Rather, we stop to soak in the beauty of life because we need it, and making art is one of the ways we "soak," causing ourselves to slow down and carefully, even meticulously, allow space for true beauty to impact our souls.
*the song is called "Those Who Trust" by Waterdeep and 100 Portraits
