Subject Matter and Audience

("Liberty Outside the Lines"- One of my first tries at "adjusted" art)

I learned a valuable lesson on language and culture during my first major mission trip to Mexico. At the mighty age of 18 I was preparing to preach to a church in Tijuana. A few hours before the evening service our team leader, a seasoned missionary pastor, asked me to talk through my message with him. The short of it was, "That's great but you're not relating to their culture at all." All of my illustrations were personal stories, most of which were from the paradigm of prosperous American culture. In his wisdom, Pastor Steve helped me adjust those illustrations to relate to the daily lives of the people in Tijuana.

All of this leads me to the question, should Christian artists also adjust their art for their intended audience? If I'm creating art to be shown in the church should it be different than the art that I'm creating for the gallery? 

From the "Yes" Side..

In the logic of communications and mass media, I would say certainly. I would say that there's no harm in adjusting your message to reach your audience. The primary problem with that is that it supposes the art is didactic, that its intentions are to communicate or persuade. If it needs translation does that make it a dishonest work? This is a problem I run into regularly with my own art-making. In my first couple quarters as a UCSD Visual Arts major I was told by a few students and professors that my art was "preachy," "didactic," and that communicating my religious beliefs through art was in fact not art at all. Can you say, identity conflict? The foremost aspect of my identity is my devotion to Jesus. One of the aspects that falls in line right under that is "artist." 

From the "No" Side..

I do believe that my journey at UCSD over the past 2 years has taught me how to be honest to who I am while not turning them away from my art. But I will not lie, there are still some conflicting perspectives. In the core of my values, it's problematic that I would ever compromise the genuineness of my heart and mind to tailor fit my work for someone else. In the Bible Paul says, "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." But in terms of art, will people really enjoy the art if they sense you're not being true to yourself for some underlying motive?

Thank you for letting me spill my conflicts. I'd love to hear what you think. Your thoughts would be very valuable to this ongoing conversation in my brain.

In Search of Christian Artists

Artwork by Jim LePage

 In one of his first blogs of the new year controversial Christian author Donald Miller tackled the question: “Is Church Life Stifling Your Creativity?” He hypothesizes the uproar that might occur if Solomon wrote his biblical text, “Song of Songs” in a modern church context, supposing that people would be outraged by the erotic nature of the poetry. In the end, the bottom line was that Miller encouraged his readers to do what God tells them to do and not what the church tells them to do.

Miller’s advice is not bad. In fact it’s downright biblical, but it begs the question, what if God’s telling you to use your creativity to make art in the church? All of the creativity drowning influences that often come with large organizations must be overcome to accomplish the call of God. You can’t shrug them off as an unfortunate circumstance. (I’m incredibly blessed to be in a church that inspires creativity.)

As the Media Director for a large church I’ve studied the leadership structures of many multi-thousand-member churches in America. In doing so I’ve discovered that contemporary art as we know it in these structures may very well simultaneously hit on religious, political and cultural stigmas. Art says things that people are afraid to speak; it’s often subversive in nature. But what does today’s great Christian art look like? I believe I am yet to discover it.  I have discovered professional quality video ministries and sharp design, but have not yet witnessed a thriving community of artists in the local church.

So I’m kicking off this blog with a thirst to discover just that. Have you seen art embraced in a church? I’d love to hear about it here.