artists

12 Roles Artists Play in Life and Living

by

Artistically gifted people have been endowed with “unusual wisdom at imaginative design and expression” (the definition of the Hebrew term “craftsman”—see e.g. Ex. 31 or Ex 35).

Hopefully these categories will help you recognize the strategic ways the artistically inclined are critical to the way God has designed human relationships and community.  

Artists are far more than wacky eccentrics; they are “imaginative expression specialists” (a term I’ve been using for several years). And they have been created by God for the purpose “of leading people into touching the transcendent realities God, and life.

So hopefully these twelve areas will help you see more clearly how and why “Artistics” are so important to the way God has designed us and the way we related to Him, and to ourselves and others.

ARTISTICS are clearly strategic to the ways God’s made the World because, through our God-given design we are:

  1. Human Expression Specialists—who have been endowed by God with unusual wisdom and skill in imaginative human expressions.
  2. Transcendence-Touchers—leading Humanity into touching the transcendent realities of LIFE, and GOD.
  3. Environment-Designers—Culturally Appropriate Gathered Worship, Celebration, and Memorialization (funerals, weddings, rites-of-passage, any EVENTS in which the Community manifests its “heart-and-soul” in tangible terms).
  4. Heart-Strikers of Humanity—specialists in sculpting “environments” wherein people’s hearts can enter and touch the Transcendent Realities of life, and of GOD.
  5. Values-Reflectors of the culture or the community—we always reflect, express, manifest the Community’s/Culture’s core attitudes, beliefs, and values … through the creative human expressions that go beyond WORDS and STATEMENTS. In fact, these OTHER Expressions as a WHOLE … are much more IMPACTING than are Words by themselves.
  6. Relationship-Makers—positives that artists bring to human interaction—that produce relationships.
    • We are curious about cultural expressions (yes there are exceptions).
    • We are respectful of and interested in cultures’ ways (yes there are exceptions).
    • We forge relationships, in the process of shared-artistic-collaboration, … wherein productive mutual appreciation increases openness, interaction, explanation, understanding; and ultimately loving relationships.
  7. Community (Culture)-Connectors – providing the Christian Community holistic channels that facilitate our ability to …
    • Contribute – contribute to community and culture.
    • Confront – confront the problems of community and culture.
    • Correct – bring corrective input TO the community and culture.
  8. Compassion-Context-Creators—artistic activities—drama groups, bands, choirs, art groups, public mural projects, dance classes and groups, video/film classes and projects … motivated by the need and intent to CARE and DEVELOP the person and the community.
  9. Story-Tellers of our culture or community—we are the “mouth-pieces” of our cultures and communities—narrating our peoples’ stories through the poems, paintings, dances, films, dramas, designs, architecture, fashions, sculptures, songs, and lore of the people; and interpreting how our story makes sense and has meaning within the framework of The Story of the World (The BIG Story of GOD, Himself).

AND for you who insist that we highlight the PROCLAMATION that does occur through each of these nine just-mentioned Dynamics of the Artist’s Role in community and culture, I could suggest a 10th role of the artistic expression specialist – that of . . .

  1. Public-Proclamation-Producers –
    • Designing, directing, and doing public meeting and events
    • Designing and doing
  2. Boundaries Stretcher
  3. CULTURE CREATORS we are the “specialists” at creatively arranging human Metaphors, Symbols, and Signal Systems in ways that express culture

We are the specialists who creatively design the PROGRAMMING that captures the Transcendent realities of LIFE and COMMUNITY in ways that people can ENTER, HOLD, EXPERIENCE.

Rejection of The Modern Idea of Artists and the Arts

by

Modern culture’s ideas about art seem to designate “artists” as a specialized elite group of art-makers.  First, are the elite who’s artistic skills are very high. They possess an extreme level of virtuosity—whether people like Paul McCartney or Yo-Yo Ma.  Second, are those who have either gained some level of fame or who have somehow found some commercial traction with their art-making.[1]  Third, are the artists who have gained some traction with the general cultural elite – this could include people like popular graffiti artist David Choe.[2]

There is also another way one could describe the modern view of the artist in the Western Modern World; that of high art which is related to institutions of high art.  Christian and philosopher Dr. Nicolas Wolterstorff writes the following: A striking feature of how the arts occur in our society is that there is among us a cultural elite and that from the totality of works of art to be found in our society a vast number are used (in the way intended by artist or distributor) almost exclusively by the members of that elite. I shall call those works our society’s works of high art.  The works of Beethoven, or Matisse, or Piero Della Francesca, are examples.  Correspondingly, our society’s institution of high art consists of the characteristic arrangements and patterns of action pertaining to the production, distribution, and use in our society of those works of art.

These notions of works of and institutions of high art are mentioned here for three major reasons:  First, these categories are not biblical categories.  They are not the categories, nor the realities that truly define either the essence of or the role of artistic expression, or artistic expressions themselves.  Second, these categories seem to form the unconscious grid through which most Church Leaders evaluate artistic specialists and imaginative human expressions they facilitate.  Third, Church Leaders generally hold these modern but incorrect views about the arts and artists; and that leads them to either see no connection between artists and the Church, or to fear that artists and arts might do damage to the agendas of the Church. 

This preconceived concept about art, and its relationship to the Church, does major damage to the Church’s ability to pursue artist expression as a means for making worship central to the mission of the body of Christ. Church leaders need to reject this modern view of artist expression, which excludes the imaginative realm of metaphors, symbols and human expressions (or signal systems), and come back to a biblical view of the arts. In doing so, they will find new vitality for worship as the central agenda of the churches.

[1] This is seen in the works of someone like Van Gough or even the comic actor, Adam Sandler.

[2] About graffiti artist David Choe, the pop-culture website, Buzzle.com: Intelligent Life on the Web, reports this comment: “David Choe started his career as a graffiti artist in Los Angeles. Today, he is known throughout the world for his creative work. Notable art of David Choe is the portrayal of (President of the United States) Barack Obama, for which he has received appreciations from the public. Unlike other famous graffiti artists, David Choe’s art is not concerned in a single domain. In brief, he can make variable graffiti designs, ranging from small to large and beautiful to vulgar paintings. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/famous-graffiti-artists.html (accessed March 5, 2012).