EACH OF OUR STORY AS ART

One of the functions of art is for people to bring their own life to engage with the art in such ways that they go beyond what the creators intended. Art is alive and breathing to touch lives beyond the original creator and its intention. The original created art creates ripples of interaction and rumination almost as if the art has a life of its own. Art has been an ancient and timeless gift to humanity that keeps on giving.

I find it fascinating that we all first “feel” art, utilizing our five senses. Whether we listen, see, or read, touch, or even smell or taste, our initial engagement happens through our visceral physical senses which is what it exactly means to be a human. Thinking or analyzing is not the first reaction, contrary to what we think (no pun intended). As modern mankind, we are taught to trust less of our feelings and more our thought. More interestingly and quite fittingly, we listen and see based on how we hear and see. Our listening and seeing are uniquely colored based on our experiences and cultures and art expects us to bring all that we are. We are invited to bring our lives interacting with the art that once “spoke” to the creators which now speaks to us. Art encapsulates and accentuates “the eye of the beholder” to its unmatched effect. Certain timeless art embodies perennial wisdom caught by mankind throughout history.

When I encountered Van Gogh’s painting, A Pair of Two Lovers (which I highlighted a week ago), I could not help but bring my interpretative conjectures into Van Gogh’s painting which may or may not draw parallels to Van Gogh’s original intent at all. I then naturally went on to equate the painting and give meaning to my life now. I read into and “conversed” with Van Gogh and his painting having juxtaposed my life. While it is always helpful to note the intent and the context out of which art is originally created, I would like to think that we are not bound by one “right” interpretation and force fit into the right way to interact with the art. I love the freedom and space that art creates for humanity to interact across timelines and cultural lines.

I once heard from a prominent leader that while science is the study of God’s work, art is the study of man’s work. The statement was a discreet way of undermining art while lifting the importance of science. I understood the statement well enough to stick with me for all these years. In some ways, I have bought into that thinking. There was clearly a bias and presumption that science is a worthier field of study than art. Back in my college days which feels like another life, I supposedly majored in Civil Engineering. My real major was church activity having found Jesus quite dramatically during my first year of college. I spent most of my college life concerned with my faith growth and when there was leftover time which was not much, I studied engineering. Even then, I had thought that I was more scientifically inclined (thanks to my minor engineering degree) and that I had no or very little artsy bent in me. It was not until many years later, I began to embrace my own unique art creativity.

Art is a desperate and unending effort to release and express creativity DNA that is in humanity. As ones created by the ultimate and infinite creative Creator, we cannot not help but showcase aspects of the creativity of our Creator. The limitation is that we are trying to capture creativity in a very constrained fashion from the infinite pool of creativity that God is. However, this limitation is not with pain but with blessing and responsibility. Creativity is the common denominator between science and art: science is the study of God’s creative work while art is the study of man’s creative work. Wonder and mystery are all ways to describe God’s as well as man’s creativity. Even in science, the more foundational the questions are, the more befuddlement and mystery. One caveat is that what and how we create varies according to our unrepeatable unique being. If we as humans have to express and we do, then art happens as a natural by-product. Art connects, speaks, and brings people as creative beings in and around the world. Art also connects with ourselves and our Creator. Thomas Merton wisely observed, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

Like many, I am a fascinated bystander of the K wave around the world. It continues to amaze me the reach and impact of K-content and K-goods and especially how they bring and connect people around the world. What many Koreans initially thought as Korean culture content only for Koreans and perhaps for a few other Asian countries, it has broken through due to its universal appeal at unique a time as this. While the K-content is uniquely Korean, the very uniqueness has found universal appeal. Therein lies the calling and lesson for us. That we must pay attention to our unique stories and not merely be driven by the universal attraction and lure. The truth of the matter is that none of us can be universally broad and embracing. We can and must be us, faithful to our stories though.

As God’s people, one requirement in this creative energy is love. What and how we create must pass the test of selfless and unpossessive love. Creativity must be subsumed under love otherwise it does not reflect the Creator’s good creativity. The personal calling and stewardship to pay attention to our own stories translate into making art in its broadest sense, whatever the art may be. Whatever we create is my working definition of art, reflecting our good Creator’s image and likeness. In many ways, life happens and comes to us looking for opportunities to unleash such creativity into the world, declaring God’s creativity through us. I lean on Thomas Merton for his penetrating insight again. “Art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order, which it expresses and in some sense explains.” I would like to think that God is honored in the process and the world benefits through our unique creative energy and outcomes.