The Christian Imagination

Lifehack.org has a helpful article about interpreting art called How to Read a Painting:

Developing a casual understanding of art is not all that difficult. It is true that some people devote their entire lives to studying the minutest details of an artists’ work, but there’s no need to become an expert to have a meaningful relationship with art. All it takes is a moderate attention to detail, a little bit of patience, and a willingness to reflect on your own feelings.

Some art is easier to appreciate than others, some easier to understand. Good art, like good poetry, often has a number of layers that can be appreciated if you take the time to look.

The Artists Toolbox at Mashable.com lists over 30 places to promote your art online. It looks like a great list!

Makoto Fujimura is the Creative Director of the International Arts Movement in New York City. Their stated vision is: IAM gathers artists and creative catalysts to wrestle with the deep questions of art, faith and humanity in order to inspire a community to engage the culture that is and create the world that ought to be.

If you are interested at all in faith and art, Fujimura is a person you should be aware of. He was recently mentioned in an article published in Forbes:

“I am a Christian,” says Fujimura, 46, who founded the nonprofit International Arts Movement to help bridge the gap between the religious and art communities. “I am also an artist and creative, and what I do is driven by my faith experience.

“But I am also a human being living in the 21st century, struggling with a lot of brokenness - my own, as well as the world’s. I don’t want to use the term ‘Christian’ to shield me away from the suffering or evil that I see, or to escape in some nice ghetto where everyone thinks the same.”

By making a name for himself in the secular art world, Fujimura has become a role model for creatively wired evangelicals. They believe that their churches have forsaken the visual arts for too long - and that a renaissance has begun.

A few more quotes from the article:

These artistic evangelicals, though still relatively small in number, are striving to be creators of culture rather than imitators.

“The Bible is full of abstraction,” said Fujimura

They sense a disconnect worshipping in churches bare of anything that’s visually arresting.

“The very parched nature of evangelical visual culture is making people who have grown up in this culture thirsty for beauty,” he said.

“If we as Christians believe that creativity and imagination is a gift from God, why have we neglected it for so many years?”

Fujimura and the others quoted in the article certainly echo my heart, to engage culture, to even create culture. As a creative Christian myself, I don’t want my art relegated to some safe Christian sub-culture, nor do I want my art reduced to a purely utilitarian purpose in worship. I want to engage the culture at large with my expressions of creativity. I want to be a voice heard round the world. It’s great to see Makoto Fujimura and the International Arts Movement on the forefront!