Michelangelo devoted the last 20 years of his life to art for the glory of God.
What a busy two weeks! My apologies for the pause. I’ve gone back to school fulltime and it’s been an adjustment – but more on that later. I’m excited! This may be the youth of my old age but we’re never too old to dream, learn, or grow.
Time to draw from the Quote Attic. I’ve saved tons of quotes regarding the source of inspiration from different artists. Maybe a couple will surprise you:
“In Medieval Christianity, the artist was understood to be the vehicle through which God’s creative inspiration found form. Through his disciplined training and craftmanship, the medieval Christian artist brought the implanted vision to reality, cognizant that the inspiration and the artwork were gifts from God, and that the artist was merely the vehicle for God’s inspiration. Therefore, the artist took no individual credit but rather identified himself as a craftsman, not as originator or creator.” ~ Diane Apostolos-Cappadona and Lucinda Ebersole, Women, Creativity, and the Arts
“Something sacred, that’s it. It’s a word that we should be able to use, but people would take it in the wrong way. You ought to be able to say a painting is as it is, with its capacity to move us, because it is as though it were touched by God.” ~ Picasso
“We [U2] have to write songs that raise the temperature of the room and find words for feelings you can’t express. And then, as Quincy Jones says, you wait for God to walk through the door. Because in the end, craft isn’t enough.” ~ Bono, lead singer, U2 rock band
“Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician because music gives pleasure as we never can…I’m Honory President of the American Humanist Association, but I simultaneously say that music is the proof of the existence of God.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., American writer
“Even denying God, to serve music, or painting, or words is a religious activity, whether or not the conscious mind is willing to accept that fact.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle, writer
“Songwriters, choreographers, playwrights, painters, and many others have accomplished much that has had impact without ever asking for help from or consciously collaborating with the Holy Spirit. This does not blow our theology; to the contrary, it points out the great love of God, who pours out not only His great gifts “on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt.5:45), gifts of talent and other blessings, but also basic gifts that are so easily overlooked–nature, sunlight, the air we breathe, the functioning of our bodies.” ~ J. Scott McElroy, Finding Divine Inspiration
Not all artists and writers acknowledge God’s influence in their creative process. Madeleine L’Engle once said that if an artist denies God in his life, his work still affirms him since “all true art is incarnational.”
Oh, to be a conduit of Life, whatever creative path we take!
