Dear Friends,

Last week I shared some thoughts on “Art & Fear” by David Bayles & Ted Orland. There is no question the book is encouraging to anyone who wants to pursue the creation of art. However, the authors make a faulty assumption about making art in the post-modern age. One shared by many other Christian artists and thinkers.

Bates and Orland assert, “Other people, in other times and places, had some robust institutions to shore them up: witness the Church, the clan, ritual and tradition. It’s easy to imagine that artists doubted their calling less when working in the service of God than when working in the service of self.”

It took me three reads to get it, but if you stop and think, this is absolutely preposterous. These "other people" in a supposed idyllic time, when artists worked only at the sole calling and belief in God, some how doubted the creative process less. Would not their doubts be a thousand times greater when in the service of the Almighty than when in the service of self? The post-modern man creating for self only doubts whether he has got the chops for it. The artist in the service of God believes their communities' purpose and quality of life in this age and the age to come depends on the quality of their work. This awesome and exciting responsibility needs to be communicated to all Christian artists.

Instead, the authors of Art & Fear contend that institutions and rituals used to keep artists from doubting, and by extension thinking. Only when artists were able to break free from the binding authorities of culture and clan did they begin to create for self. What a dismal prospect. I suppose this would mean Adam and Eve's stunt with the apple was the first performance art piece.

This kind of thinking leads one to believe that any artist who creates based on a belief in God must have lower brain functions than the artist who creates based on the belief in self. Art for the sake of self is a dead end street. Communicating for the common good is where Christian artists must turn their passion in order to create the type of art that guided culture for hundreds of years. Like Bezalel (Exodus 31:1-11) we must work to create art for the common good in the service of the one being in the Universe who must be feared, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Illuminating Understanding,

The Cinematographer
Stewart H. Redwine
C: 310-770-0448
E: sredwine@36parables.com