We have our calling. We've been guided, gifted, and inspired by our mentor. We're grounded in the Church--as a friend said, the audience breathes with the liturgy of the worship. Now the question is who are our enemies and allies? What is the rhythm of our journey?
(And what is your favorite color?)
This leads us to David Taylor's talk from the Transforming Culture symposium. For those of you who don't know (and I didn't put two and two together until well after the symposium, but math isn't my strong suit--I much better with spades), David Taylor is the keeper of the Diary of an Arts Pastor blog. He listed six dangers of the journey. (The journey term is mine, so if it's bad, don't blame poor David.) Again, David focused on art within the worship service, but I think that the dangers he listed are the enemies of the artist in general.
Enemy #1: Bad art.
Thank you for saying this, David. Confession: I recently ranted about this in the comments on Bertrand's post on The Master's Artist about book critiquing (or something to that effect). Christians in general don't like to hurt people's feeling, which is a good quality, but we don't know how to critique art without hurting feelings. Which means we just allow for everything and call it a matter of taste. But Christians do produce bad art. We produce art that is sentimental (and thank you, David, for listing sentimental as a quality of bad art), lazy, mellodramatic, elitist. We reject things we don't understand without taking the time to educate ourselves. (John Witvliet said at some point, or more likely several points, that the future of art in Christianity and by Christianity lies in the hands of teachers both to form good artists and also to educate the congregations about what is and what isn't good art.)
Embarrassing story: A few years ago, I went to an art exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art of Duchamp and a few others. I saw art pieces like the porcelain urinal and thought, what on earth? Here's the thing: I should've known better. I knew the contemporary music scene, the dadism art statement. I still didn't get it. I didn't take the time to figure it out. So I thought, well, this isn't art. A patient friend explained it to me, and I remembered composers such as John Cage and movements such as musique concrete, and I realized, yes, this is good art.
It took education.
I'm not saying that if we just figure out the meaning behind the art we'll realize that it's all good art in its own realm.
Not at all.
I'm saying we're often too lazy to educate ourselves to understand what is good art and what is bad art. Instead, we rely on what feels good. Too often, that judgment alone (what feels good) translates to sentimentality.
Jesus was anything but sentimental.
I can see long-winded me has taken the helm. David actually has six dangers (or enemies, in my lingo) and three qualities of a healthy artistic life (or allies), and I've only interacted with the first one thus far.
I can see that this series will be long. Very, very long.
I'll stop here, but I want to give you a couple resources for those of you who are interested in the education process:
Music
Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History
Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim
(This is only the beginning--email me if you're interested in this.)
Literature
The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 3rd Edition
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Mythos Books)
Book Club 101, a website for those interested in starting a book club--the general questions on the page to get your brain going are helps for digging deeper into a book
A Book Review Format by Dee Stewart, a blog post about how to look critically at books
You can also see my Writing Resources page--though these are focused for the writer, the same ideas can be applied to reading. (After all, learning to become a better writer translates to being a better reader.)
Film
Reel Spirituality,: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Engaging Culture)
Hollywood Jesus, a website of film reviews
Church of the Masses, Barbara Nicolosi' blog (one of the speakers at the Transforming Culture symposium--I'll be interacting with her talk after I finish with David Taylor's)
Art
I want to be honest that this is my weakest area, but I have found some things to be helpful.
Purposes of Art: An Introduction to the History and Appreciation of Art
Refractions, Makoto Fujimura's blog
There are more resources listed on my Incarnating Christ page for all categories. If you know of any other resources, please let me know--I love discovering new things! Also, for those of you who love to talk shop, you can always hop on over to Intersection, a social online community where art, theology, and missional living cross.
Some other books I thought of
Visual Art by William Dyrness (more art and theology with a focus on visual art)
Imagine by Steve Turner
Addicted to Mediocrity by Frank Schaeffer
Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle
Those last three are more directed for the artist, but I include these particular ones because they have this idea of striving for great art.
Great list there! Wow...I have some really good ones on art at home. I'll post again later on, or tomorrow. I was art director full time at my church for two years...the stuff you talk about is def against the grain and traditions of most Christians.
Cheers.
And where do we get to discuss our favorite colors?
I love this quote from you: "I'm saying we're often too lazy to educate ourselves to understand what is good art and what is bad art. Instead, we rely on what feels good. Too often, that judgment alone (what feels good) translates to sentimentality."
A friend and I were comparing the assessments our preschoolers brought home. My daughter excels at making stick figures. Unless you knew that being able to make a stick figure was an important milestone in the developmental stages of a preschooler, you probably wouldn't look at my daughter's stick figure and be impressed that it has eyebrows. Her teachers, however, pointed out her artwork and exclaimed with glee over how advanced she is. Am I going to enter her into the local artshow? Um, no. We're not quite talking Picasso. However, knowing the importance of the stage she's in, I can appreciate her work for what she's done.
Now, let's pretend she either couldn't draw a stick figure or drew a very deformed stick figure. It could be the coolest picture ever. And I wouldn't be just saying that because she's my kid. Well, maybe I am. But as her mom, I think anything she makes is cool. But it doesn't mean it's good art. It doesn't mean that she's acquired the developmental stage she's in.
I think that's the same with appreciating all art. You have to have some sort of metric for understanding what you're looking at. And I think you have to contextualize it... without some level of parameters, you're not understanding what it is. That said, there is also a place for the proud parent to take a look at the art and say, "Yes! My kid made that!" Even if it's just a bunch of glue and macaroni. Because I think God is a loving father, and just like any loving parent, even if it's complete and utter garbage, He's still going to hang it up on His fridge.
Good point. Well said.
Okay, H, to continue our private conversation . . . :), so we all get "educated" as to the components of good art v. bad art. I'm still not putting that urinal in my living room.
Seriously, we can qualify art and give it parameters, but the definition does not "qualify" it to be liked, enjoyed, and even appreciated. And because an individual might appreciate the process but not like the art does not mean he/she is lazy or uneducated. And, if an individual has zero desire to "appreciate" the arts from the standpoint of technique(s) and/or acute examination of the product but knows what he/she likes and definitely does not like, what does that say?
Our church uses a variety of media, has a traditional and contemporary service, has a Fine Arts competition for youth at all levels of performance, so I'm not sure that we're lacking there.
Yes, we create bad art. But one question I have to ask: "What to do with all of the people who have neither your intelligence, nor your opportunity to study art?" Simple people appreciate beauty with passion. It might not be art. What place does Christianity hold for the uneducated, or for the sentimental folks who just lack good taste.
See I think I have pretty good taste. I have an education. I go to art museums. But I don't know as much about art as you. So likely I would end up liking something that would turn out to be sentimental or whatever.
I think it all boils down to community. Perhaps a uber-cool post modern congregation meeting in a warehouse would be able to embrace a more serious view of art. And that would be a blessing and a gift to the Kingdom. On the other hand, an inner city Catholic church is likely going to have a lot of art that consists of Jesus with a huge, fire engine red heart on the outside of his chest. It fits them.
Let me clarify--I don't mean "schooled" by education in the sense of formal education. For example, following your example of the "uneducated"--there are folk arts out there that use different techniques (and shared techniques) from oil painting. There's ballet, and there's square dancing. You can do both well and both poorly. I don't mean we should all strive for what is considered "high" art (meaning things like symphonies v. rock). I mean that whatever art we choose, we do it well. We take the time to work at it. We're willing to enter into both the suffering and hope of Jesus (remember my posts about art being like baptism and Andy Crouch's idea of play and pain?)
Also, I think I was misleading by adding the resources that I did. By education, I don't mean that everyone has to go buy an art book or book on music (I only added those for those who might be interested). I mean that the leadership of the church (each local church) takes the time to guide their congregation. Use art that you feel is appropriate for your church (you don't want to shock them), and explain it. You may not want to start with abstract art, but with Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son. What does it mean? Hang a print and talk about some of the aspects. At some point, you may feel you can move to abstract art. Some people look at abstract and because they don't understand it, reject it. Caveat: Let me be the first to say that not all abstract art is good. It still needs to be held to standards. But take the time to explain to your congregation what's going on in a piece.
Appreciation is different from liking a piece.
"I mean that whatever art we choose, we do it well. We take the time to work at it. " My mother and I, both creative people, consistently argue over taste and preference, but we both appreciate the discipline and work that go into those expressions - even if we dislike it. I have a college degree, she doesn't, but we're on the same plane because we both seek to understand what is behind the efforts. Furthermore, we appreciate the mere fact that the other gains some delight from it - be it writing, music, art or whatever. GOOD POST.
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