Really? That’s all you got?

Sometimes, the truth hurts

One of the funniest comments from the judges on American Idol is when they tell the contestants something like “We want to hear you, we want to hear what you sound like and what you bring to the table, your voice”. When the contestant does that, the judges then rough them up for changing the song! WTH?! I’m about to do the same thing here.

I’m just going to say it straight up and up front. If you being a Christian is the most interesting thing you can offer with your art you should decide to flip burgers instead. Or make bird houses. I don’t just mean in terms of whether you should make a living as an artist, I mean in terms of whether you should be an artist, period.

Okay, here’s what I mean. Of course, this could be said about a lot of people, not just Christians. But for right now I am talking to Christians who make or want to make art. If this is not you and you read on, feel free to insert whatever other kind of person, activist, or artist you want in order to make it relevant for you.

I do believe one of the problems the Church has within discussions about art is some idea that the Church’s problems are uniquely the Church’s and so solutions need to address “Church” and use Church language and talk spiritually, not secularly. This immediately puts fences around solutions and blinders on the problem solvers. But that’s a related topic for another time. Right now I am talking directly to Christians because it is exactly this framework of “Christianity” that is such a problem for the Church and our view on art.

First steps

When we first start out a creative, artistic journey one of the things we do that seems natural is to learn by copying. First, maybe someone draws something and then we trace it for ourselves, following the lines laid before. Or we learn to sing or paint exactly as another singer or painter. These are things that train our ear, eye, and/or muscle memory.

Sometimes we get to know an artist so well, we can create a song or revise a work so that it looks or sounds like another artist. One of my favourite shows on NPR is a musician takes a popular tune and then plays it in the style of a classic composer. Then a contestant has to guess which popular song that was and which composer in whose style it was played. Always fun to test if one is astute enough to pick out the nuances of particular artists.

These are great things to learn, great ways to hone one’s craft. But in the end an artist has to create like they create, not how another artist creates. This is said all the time and I’ve written about it here.

Where we as Christians often fail in this is when we want to reflect our Christianity in our work. This is understandable. Christianity has a rich history of biblical art. For some great examples just check out Jane Arney’s blog, Infinite Windows. She does a wonderful job pairing art with the scripture it reflects, with an artist’s eye to how the art works. One of my favourite blogs.

Abstract artists like Makoto Fujimura or Bruce Herman, or figurative artists like Suzy Schultz, aren’t trying to illustrate biblical passages per se. But they communicate universals, themes, and ideas in unique ways and from different perspectives. If you ever make it to the Vatican Museum make sure you save enough energy to really sit with the Modern wing. Unfortunately, it is at the end of the path, so if you didn’t know it was there, you can easily be too tired to appreciate the work. That’s what happened to me!

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Christian religious art. But what we have to be careful of is that we aren’t creating or imposing Christian-ese in order to justify, sanctify, or validate the work. The classic religious art most often had a purpose. It was a way to communicate scripture for those who couldn’t read, especially when scripture was only allowed to be written and read in Latin.

(And even then, in their own way, the artists were still trying to understand scripture’s relationship to humanity. Should portrayals of Mary and Jesus be more conceptual or more realistic? Do they illustrate an ascetic ideal or a humanistic ideal?)

In American Idol, the contestants shouldn’t simply recreate the original recording. At the same time, they have to be careful when they select a song that already has such a strong aesthetic from another artist’s recording (often the original) that you are going to naturally be compared. How do you out “James Brown”, James Brown? You don’t.

Karaoke Christianity

Such as it is with artists today who try to create something based on the bible or Christianity. Not only does the bible, as translated today in just about any language you want, already say what you are trying to illustrate, but chances are other artists have already likely done so. What are you going to bring to the scripture that no one else has or that the scripture doesn’t do on its own?

Consider how your work functions without its title. If the work fails without a title to explain it (especially if your title is a particular verse or passage), then there is likely something missing. Simply giving a work a “Christian” title does not sanctify the work nor is it enough to justify the work’s existence.

This is not to say a title cannot add another layer to the work. Consider the Felix Gonzalez-Torres piece, Untitled (Perfect Lovers). The title works in synergy with the art work itself. The two together create something more than either do on their own.

You have to do you. What you create has to come from the abundance of your heart. If you don’t then you are just parroting someone or something else. Art has to be authentic, you have to be honest, you have to be vulnerable. What you create is not about what you think you should be creating, it is what is in you to create, using the voice God gave you. That’s what people will respond to. How can people respond to you if you are not authentic and honest? How will they trust you? What we are trying to prevent here is Three Crosses on a Hill or “plaster praying hands” kitsch.

That said, if your calling is to paint “three crosses on a hill”, I say paint it! Further, paint it like no one has seen before! Bring a new voice and a new meaning to the work. Make it so everyone forgets every other attempt at three crosses on a hill that came before.

God created with his voice. Create with yours!

Thanks for reading! Drop me a note.

blogATnatureofthebeatDOTorg

Joe