Art as co-creation with God

This week I am in Toronto presenting a paper at an academic conference about my PhD research, so I thought for this week’s blog I’d offer a version of part of my paper. My research is about the spirituality of artists, how every single one of us is creative because we are made in God’s image. 

In this dumpster fire of a world, why should we invest time in something as frivolous as making art? How is taking pictures on your cell phone, making a dent in the human scale of destruction we are participating in. Making art could be considered escapism: wandering with a cell phone instead of chaining yourself to trees. 

A creative practice, whatever it is, connects with our bodies and minds and requires a particular type of attention. Many would say we are where we are today because we failed to pay attention to the landscape around us: the climate, the food shortages, the scientists who have been sounding the alarm since at least the 1960s. By learning to focus our attention we might develop the deeper sense of care required to slow down our destructive impact. 

In the first creation story, the sixth day is the final, climactic act before God takes a rest. It is the day of the land creatures, those that walk or crawl or slither. Humans are made on the same day as land creatures. Unlike the land creatures who are born from the earth, the human is born from God, made in God’s image. We have a responsibility to and relationship with the rest of creation. We do not get our own day. We are part of the work of the land. But we do get a role. This role is our original vocation, the calling and purpose of every human being.

This relationship is being severely tested in this ecological age. It may be difficult to imagine we even still have this role, but we do, perhaps now more than ever. It is a burden, demanding that humans not only share the resources with all of Creation, but to facilitate the sharing of resources among the rest of Creation. 

In my research with artists, particularly Christian artists in ministry, all see their creative practice as well as their ministry as an extension of God’s work in the world. They experience a connection with the Creator that is distinct from when, for example, they are leading worship or at a bedside. One person I interviewed is a woodworking artist. They talk about wood as still containing the original breath of creation. This person has worked with wood from old growth forests that are thousands of years old. So, when they work with wood, they describe it as God’s breath still exhaling. 

Making art is an interaction and interconnection between the artist, materials, location, and an expression of the artist and her state in the midst of it. The connection only deepens with practice. Making any kind of art, whether it be a paper craft or a cell phone photo, colouring, or a sculpture in a museum, helps us remember and embody our original vocation as stewards and co-creators.

It also helps build focus and attention. As soon as we notice something, we have a connection with it. Part of making art is noticing and paying attention to details. This is why I am drawn to photography. It allows me to notice in one moment the massive and the minuscule, the spectacular and the mundane. Bringing the file home and blowing it up on my screen brings more detail into focus, like one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s famous flowers. She had this to say about her paintings.

A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower--the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower--lean forward to smell it--maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking--or give it to someone to please them. Still--in a way--nobody sees a flower--really--it is so small--we haven’t time--and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time. 

So I said to myself--I’ll paint what I see--what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it--I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.

We pay attention to what we care about, and we come to care about those things we pay attention to. Creative practice, whatever medium, whatever quality you want to assign to the result, cultivates attentiveness. It draws into deeper connection with all things around us, and a deeper sense of care and loving stewardship. 

Any opportunity to practice our creativity and focus our attention is an opportunity to transform ourselves as humans to the co-creators we are called to be. Approaching creation as an artist, seeking the breath, experiencing God’s compassion, is available to each of us for ourselves and the flourishing of all life.