Studying Under The Master Artist

This was originally written on 10/18-2006

Today I realized that I may or may not ever be a professional artist. When I was young, being an artist is all I thought I wanted to be and it never seemed to be out of reach. Early in my high school days I was fed the lie that artists don't make money so I should try to find a job to make money. Early in college I was a business major but found no joy in what I was doing. I didn't care about making money I just cared about doing what I love.
Not too long after, I became a Christian and I changed my major to Art. You may be wondering, What does becoming a Christian have to do with being an artist? I really didn't understand at the time either but I few years later it started making more sense to me. I started in the art major to make the kind of art that I wanted and it was fun. I made art that I thought could make me money too. I thought about being a famous artist and being in the textbooks for creating a new type of art that had never been done before. I was in it for the prestige, for the fame, for my own glory.
Three years into my art studies I noticed my art started changing because my heart had started changing. I realized that God was the one who gave me the ability to create art. He is the one who instilled the passion in me that comes out in my paintings. I then thought, If God gave this ability to me then I should use it to glorify Him. My next dilemma was how do I do this?
I started creating work that was blatantly Christian. Crosses, Jesus pictures, you name it. The only problem was that I didn't want to do these types of scenes. Particularly the traditional way I was making them either. God knew my heart. He knew my desire to create something radical, something abstract but still have the intensity of the gospel behind it.
I soon realized that I didn't matter the subject or style that I wanted to create in. It only mattered that my heart belonged to God and everything I created was glorifying Him or representing Him in some way. I could make the most nonrepresentational abstract painting and it would still have significance to my spirituality. Everything I do, say, all of my actions, everything I paint, sculpt, design is a reflection of an aspect of God because I am created in His image. I am also a sinner and a fallen man, which means not all of my words, thoughts, actions are pure and holy but it is what I strive for with the grace of God. This all translates to how I create my art and whom for.