Today, I've been pondering my purpose as an artist. Why do I feel the urge to create? How can I adequately express this to others? If I were asked to state my purpose as an artist, how could I succinctly state my passionate life endeavor?
I started off by reading and wondering over different artist's statements. Some artists might say their work reflects their desire for social justice. Others would say they make art to illustrate the dichotomy of this or that in our society. Others state their work is merely a study of light and reflection, or something along those lines. While these are all valid (I suppose), I couldn't force myself to pin my work to one category. So I began searching for an over-arching theme not only in my artwork, but in my life.
The main item that urges me to create is the Lord of inspiration: God. So I then turned to the teachings of Christianity for an answer, since I believe myself to be a Christian before I would profess to be an artist.
I wrote out my purpose to be: "to spread the gospel of Love -- of Christ".
I realized underlying themes that strike me as central to my main purpose (though not as supreme as my purpose), so I began a flowchart that categorized my desires as an artist. Underneath my purpose, I wrote "to be a catalyst of change in today's society".
As I continued my day working in the studio, I began to slowly form a deeper, broader sense of my purpose. Spreading the gospel is a strong part of this new statement; however, standing by itself, it failed to portray the ultimate sense of existence I hold in my heart.
After much deliberation (and much more to come, I suspect), I have come to the conclusion that my chief end is "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
When I stand on stage in church on Sundays, the way I've most felt the Spirit move through my painting is by realizing that the act of creation is an act of devotion to God as creator. Just as He painted the sky with a laugh and a flourish of his brush, so I attempt to paint my color-poor landscapes with the same laugh and flourish. Through creating, I glorify God and enjoy Him. Through this, I can feed the spiritually starving; I can spread the gospel of Christ just as much as a sidewalk evangelist. Through this, people can be healed physically and spiritually.
I'm still learning what it's like to be a sacred artist. I feel like I'm just learning how to maybe walk...well, maybe crawling right now. At least now I have a purpose I can look back at and re-orient myself whenever I get overwhelmed with the artworld or theology.
