This is the final part of a three-part series on Art. If you haven’t read parts one or two, I’d encourage you to read them to fully understand this piece.
As I’ve said before, I’m not satisfied with how the Church deals with Art. In “Christian Art”, we often tell a version of Reality cheapened by a cheesy “Christian” happily-ever-after ending. We either copy what we see around us and “Redeem” it with cheesiness, or we keep to our Amish fiction because we can’t stomach vampire stories. We have the Truth for all mankind, but we keep it locked away in religiously correct terminology. As Christian Artists, we have so much potential to influence people. But we waste it. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard, yet we just complain about the lack of “good Art”. God is calling up Artists in our generation, yet the Church discourages Artists.
In fact, Philip G. Ryken (Leland Ryken's son) wrote a blogpost titled How to Discourage Artists in the Church. As an Artist myself, I feel these things. Please go read his piece. Artists in the Church aren’t encouraged enough. Artists tend to be strange people who don’t often fit in, but we need encouragement and support just like the next guy. God gave us talents just like He gave talents to builders and accountants. But our eccentricities aren’t seen as useful. We pour our souls into our work, and we want you to appreciate it. Don’t fake that you enjoy it if it’s not what speaks to you; but genuinely understand what we poured into it. Because Art is often a thankless job, one big way to support Artists is to financially support them. Art offers a window into God’s Story, but not many people deal in that currency. The conversion rate between that currency and the money most people use is wildly inconsistent.
Encourage the use of Artists’ talents, just like you would a carpenter or doctor. Art is often a lonely calling, but yet it thrives in society. Facilitate community gatherings of Artists: be flexible with them, allow them to meet at your church, show them they are just as important as the next guy. For the Artists’ sake, rather go without than go with bad Art. Don’t display bad art in the foyer. If you haven’t been given an excellent pianist, go without the piano--each church has been placed with unique people such that each church won’t look alike. Instead of trying to fit Artists in slots on your praise band, take the people God gives you with the talents God gave them. What if God gave you a banjoist or ukulele-ist? At the same time, don’t force Artists to give their talents in only one area of specialty. That’s like only allowing a teacher to serve by teaching Sunday School. In a word: don’t stereotype. Offer opportunities, don’t force.
Different types of Art can be displayed differently. I thought about this over the summer when I was part of a Worship Arts Camp. At the end of the week, we put on a show to present all the drama, songs, video, and such we had been working on. I was in a writing class during the week. How should the writers present their writing? You can’t perform a short story on stage. Putting the text up on the big screen to have a collective reading doesn’t do it justice. In the end, we laid our works out on a table in the foyer, hoping people would stop and read them. The medium is the message: different types of media are consumed differently.
Art offers a special opportunity to worship for a congregation. Worship has become synonymous with singing--yet how is “worship music” different from other music? There are many diverse ways to worship through Art: writing a poem or filming a movie can be as much worship as singing a song. The problem here, as I explained previously, is that different types of Art can be displayed differently. Worshiping through song is easier to do as a corporate body than worshiping through reading a short story in unison or filming a movie together or painting a collective painting. We assume everyone can get involved because everyone can sing, even if not proficiently. Everyone can swing a paintbrush, too, yet we leave painting to the “professionals”. What if enjoying watching someone play the banjo or enjoying a movie with others is just as much worship as singing?
We are told to worship in everything we do, in each of our vocations. Art and worship go together for the Artist the same way that accounting and worship go together for the accountant. An Artist is called to do good work--as I explained in Part 2. For the mime, mime is a way to worship. For the comedian, comedy is. Worshiping through Art is more than just creating “religious Art”--as I explained in Part 1. Worship is enjoying God and glorifying Him, as made popular by the Westminster Catechism.
Some may think Artists aren’t as essential to society as bakers and doctors. Shantung Compound is a memoir about a Japanese prison camp in China during WWII. Although the prisoners weren’t tortured, they had to create a society from scratch. As Langdon Gilkey explained, once they had the basic necessities accounted for, art soon became another need, to break up the monotony of camp life. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, once we step up the hierarchy, Art is just as essential as bread. Not only this, but Art created by Christians is needed in this dying world. We shouldn’t just create Christian Art to try to “outweigh” all the bad Art in the world. Because we know Reality, we have a reason to create Art.
I know people who say Art should be offered for free, because it is a benefit to humanity. While I realise Art can be corrupted by greed, Artists have to support themselves somehow. I heard someone say, “Inspiration is free, but paint brushes aren’t.” Neither is food. Just as much as electricians and accountants need to support themselves, Artists do, too. I love being able to support my favourite Artists by buying their music or tickets for a concert.
Artists need readers, viewers, and fans just as much as builders need customers. But an Artist can’t demand his followers to enjoy only his Art. Good Art points to a bigger Story, and realises that many other things do, too. A good Artist understands that while they offer a glimpse of God, they can’t completely reveal God. A person who only reads books by one author or only listens to music by one musician has a very narrow view of the world. Artists are usually in tune with good Art, and enjoy sharing it. In fact, the best way to create better Art is to fill yourself with good Art. If you’re a musician, listen to music like crazy. If you’re a filmmaker, watch movies all the time. Even great Art isn't the end-all be-all of human creativity.
Artists need readers, viewers, and fans just as much as builders need customers. But an Artist can’t demand his followers to enjoy only his Art. Good Art points to a bigger Story, and realises that many other things do, too. A good Artist understands that while they offer a glimpse of God, they can’t completely reveal God. A person who only reads books by one author or only listens to music by one musician has a very narrow view of the world. Artists are usually in tune with good Art, and enjoy sharing it. In fact, the best way to create better Art is to fill yourself with good Art. If you’re a musician, listen to music like crazy. If you’re a filmmaker, watch movies all the time. Even great Art isn't the end-all be-all of human creativity.
Art isn’t a business. This is one reason Artist’s aren’t known to be rich. As they say, an English major is really a major in unemployment. It’s hard for an Artist to sell his work, to give away a part of himself. I think my work is great, but it’s risky to see if it stands up to testing by the masses who don’t treasure it like I do. When your Art is priceless to you, how do you know what price to ask? When you try to create something that people actually want to buy, you can easily compromise Art. So, how does an Artist make a living? I have no idea. That’s why I’m experimenting to see where what I offer meets what people need.
Okay, I’ve created something; now, how do I get it to people who will appreciate it? Part of my strategy is to offer stuff here on this blog. I can point to this and say, “Here is some stuff I’ve written.” There are now more Print-on-Demand options than ever. No longer is printing a real book a week-long process. Instead, I can upload a PDF file to print in 5 minutes. Welcome to CreateSpace, Amazon’s self-publishing branch. I’ve used this service before, and it’s a cool way to turn something I’ve written into a physical book I can put on my shelf. This is but one way to get my Art to people who will appreciate it.
Practically speaking, crowdfunding is one way to offer products or services in return for money, much like a modern version of the medieval Artist Patronage System (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Pubslush are examples). If you’ve never heard of NoiseTrade, stop reading this right now and go check it out. This article tells a little about the idea behind NoiseTrade. If only there were a NoiseTrade for writers and photographers and filmmakers and dancers. I’m excited to see how I can use Scribd as a similar platform to share my Art with readers. Because of the Internet, there is now so much “stuff” out there, it’s hard to sort through it all. I’m excited to figure out how to connect Art with those it will speak to.
In this pursuit to figure out how to share Art, I have come up with a crazy plan to write a book in two months. That’s right, 61 days. I’m calling it a Haiku-a-Day challenge. Every day during October and November, I will write at least one haiku and a little chunk of text (poetry, fiction, nonfiction…). At the end of November, all of that will be turned into a book. The Indiegogo campaign is going live on October 1, so please check out the preview by clicking the link below. I’d really appreciate having you on board with this project. I’m excited for this project, and I'm not sure exactly how it will turn out, but that’s the fun part!
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