I came back from Ohio earlier this week. I went to help Sarah set up an art show for her students. She teaches high schoolers. I learned a thing or two. Not so much about hanging an art show but about the people in the show and who the intended audience was. Also, about the people I was working with to help put on the show. All of these things were very different than what I was normally used to in my current experience in gallery exhibition.
I've only ever delt with college-aged and professional artists. A whole different dynamic when it comes to planning an art show. In my experience it has always been about what is best for the show. While this may be true for the professional wolrd of artists, its takes second place for young artists. I now see the value in displaying any artwork for young artists. It really doesn't matter what their skill level is. Should we give praise to what only seems professional? Does that mean just because someone's skill is not as high as what we set the standard to be we should value their work any less?
I'm reminded of a story that talks about an art class and the teacher gives the students an assignment to create a picture that looks like the teacher's painting. The students look at the supplies they have been given. Each student starts to notice that the person next to them has something different. One has a paint brush, another just paint, another just a pencil and so forth. The students then ask the teacher "How can we make the same picture if we all don't have the same tools. The teacher responded by saying "I've given you everything you need. Use what I have given you".
I'm sure there is multiple lessons we can learn from this story but I'd like to use it in reference to what Jesus teaches. Jesus asks us to "paint a picture" that resembles Himself. It shouldn't be about what the person next to us is doing to create that picture but, to follow what our teacher (Jesus) has given us to work with. For me this means not to judge the gifts and talents that God gives to different people (whatever skill level they may be) but to give glory to the One who give them the gifts in the first place.
There is something beautiful about the innocence of art and the artist that is learning. Once someone has learned the skills to push your artwork further it is extremely difficult to create art(and admire it) in such a pure form as one once did.
If we could take ourselves back to the purity of art that we once had with the knowledge that we have today. What would artwork look like? And how would people of the professional art world view it?
I'm reminded of a story that talks about an art class and the teacher gives the students an assignment to create a picture that looks like the teacher's painting. The students look at the supplies they have been given. Each student starts to notice that the person next to them has something different. One has a paint brush, another just paint, another just a pencil and so forth. The students then ask the teacher "How can we make the same picture if we all don't have the same tools. The teacher responded by saying "I've given you everything you need. Use what I have given you".
I'm sure there is multiple lessons we can learn from this story but I'd like to use it in reference to what Jesus teaches. Jesus asks us to "paint a picture" that resembles Himself. It shouldn't be about what the person next to us is doing to create that picture but, to follow what our teacher (Jesus) has given us to work with. For me this means not to judge the gifts and talents that God gives to different people (whatever skill level they may be) but to give glory to the One who give them the gifts in the first place.
There is something beautiful about the innocence of art and the artist that is learning. Once someone has learned the skills to push your artwork further it is extremely difficult to create art(and admire it) in such a pure form as one once did.
If we could take ourselves back to the purity of art that we once had with the knowledge that we have today. What would artwork look like? And how would people of the professional art world view it?
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