I can’t count how many friends and teachers scribbled in my childhood and adolescent yearbooks: “I’ll vote for you for president someday!” It’s a silly memory now, but a good reminder that my passion for justice has been alive and well since my playground days. For years I bragged that I would be the first woman president… and I believed it. It wasn’t until my first art history class that I was able to put the broader scope of my passion into language. I learned about artists that changed politics by inspiring social movements and spiritual revivals through their work. I was about 20 when I realized that I am about 2 parts artist and only 1 politician.
Through a facebook post I just learned about an awesome film project called, “The Candy Shop.” It is a 30-minute film that functions as an allegorical fairytale about the child sex trafficking industry in Georgia. In video and film, one of my primary goals has been to explore the blurred boundaries between documentary, fictional and experimental film. Though I have not seen the film in its entirety, the trailer excites me in that the film is a fictional story that addresses a real issue in an experimental way. Another thing that I want to research about this film project is that it was produced in association with 12 Stone Church. I am stoked on the idea of churches supporting films that will reach people… and then funneling the profits of those films to the cause itself.
All of this leads me back to the familiar question: Why do I avoid creating art that’s overtly tied to a cause (especially if it’s what first got me excited about art)? My gut response is that I’ve been so discouraged by the cultural stigma to “push religion on people through art.” Many artists create work that overtly expresses their social and political values, but it seems to me that if anyone tries to create art that overtly demonstrates that Jesus is God it can no longer be called art. It’s hard to not get discouraged that others can freely create art for their “cause of choice,” but what if my only cause to create is Christ crucified and risen?
