Talk – Art is/for/in Worship

This is not the talk I actually gave at the Home League a couple of weeks ago, but it what I had planned and it kinda is what I said, but still its close enough.

Art for/in/is worship

Hi, I suppose I should give a bit of background on who I am for those of you who don’t know me. I suppose the main highlights would be I am the son of Salvation Army officer who are now retired, I was luckier than many officer kids that I had relatively few appointments and they were all in Scotland and for the most part in the wilds. Technically I am an only child but through out my life there have been people who have become a part of my family through various reasons who have become effectively siblings. I came to live in Edinburgh back in 1996 and I have been here every since.

Now as far as art, which is kind of why I was asked to come here, goes, from an early age I enjoyed drawing, in fact it was one of the ways my parents kept me quiet during meetings… which may explain why even to this day I still doodle through meetings, honestly its not a sign of boredom but rather being inspired, at least that’s what I tell the officer. Through school although I still had passion it never really went anywhere as I didn’t think I could make a living out of it, in fact I still wonder that even today, anyway, so I went to university to study computers, where I ended up sketching and doodling through many classes. And so went my life for years art was always there, something I enjoyed doing, and enjoyed viewing. I had many favourite artists but in a way I was still in my infancy. Art was always something I found very much intertwined with my faith which has only grown more so in the last few years.

In the autumn of 2006 after I went to Tokyo, Japan, for a new job and it all falling apart a few days later, I found myself back home at my parents, jobless. I was incredibly down during this time and I started to really get into art again, fuelled by boredom and the negative emotions I was going through. A few months later I ended up working for Granton Salvation Army helping them set up a computer room. I decided to give self employment a go, I had always wanted to try it. Throughout 2007 I tried to make the business work and in time it changed from being computer based to be increasing art and design focused and then at the beginning of 2008 I was asked to paint live on stage at the Roots event for the youth venue. I gladly accepted and then realised I was probably insane as I had never done anything like that before, I had only been painting a year or so, and I hated getting up in front of lots of people.

So in May 2008 I went and had a weekend that I hope to never forget, the team I was working with were amazing and such a support and by the end of the weekend not only had I ended up painting in 6 meetings but they had liked my work, which was even more a shock to me. I felt like I was really helping in the worship, in fact in one meeting they decided to just have me painting and some music playing as a prayerful moment in the meeting. Which was an interesting experience, it really opened my eyes to the possibilities of art as being not just being used in worship but that it was worship.

Roots Art:

Which leads me to what I wanted to really talk about, Art is worship, art, in fact anything creative, is part of Gods design. Back in the beginning of the bible is says that God created everything, God created. God is not a remote, bland, uninspired god, He is creativity, He is inspiration. He took pleasure in the act of creation, and I believe that we are made in His image and that is why we strive to create and inspire wither this is through paint, or poetry, or through food… oh yes food one of my favourite creative arts, as you can see.

Don’t just think that because you cant paint you cant be creative, creativity is not just art, it extends to everything from paint to food to poetry to dance to singing to our actions. I believe those who can organise bake sales are creative, those who can befriend others, those who pray, those who do the hidden things behind the scenes all of those in their own ways are creative things as they create new friendships, create new possibilities, create places to be and to be welcomed.

Anyway, before I launch into a sermon, I want to focus on art as a form of worship and how it can be used. There is a long history of art in Christianity from icons to the paintings of the classical artists and even today where many are still creating evocative and challenging pieces, many of which are not to everyone’s taste but that is part of art, as it is music, and the other creative arts.

I was trying to think how I can explain how I find art is worship, and well, I don’t know if I can explain it fully, but I’m going to give it a go. A picture can be broken down into 3 areas, the message, the imagery, the emotions, so as I go through this I’ll use example of my own work and also hopefully on this canvas as I try to quickly… very quickly… create a simple piece that I hope explains how the process I take and at the same time shows how art in worship can be useful and perhaps inspire you take a go yourself. I have not planned much of this, bar choosing its theme and thinking of how I can work that in to what I want to do, so this may fail miserably, but we got to try new things haven’t we?

The message is a pieces theme, for example when I doing live art, and even if I’m not, I usually have something that I am trying to get across, usually what ever that meetings sermon is about or its theme. Sometimes it can just be song that gives inspiration. Songs and poetry are brilliant for this because they quite often already contain the images and symbols that you would to include in a picture.

example: “Let Wisdom Guide – Proverbs 4″

Imagery is basically using objects or images to mean something else, take the common biblical example of the holy spirit being a dove, or the heart as where we feel love. Imagery can be obvious or subtle, and sometimes so convoluted it needs explaining, and even then it may not make sense. Of course imagery doesn’t need to be realistic, in fact I’m not really good at realistic representations, and sometimes abstract has its appeal.

example: “Easter 2009″

Emotions also play a large key as they can effect what is called the mood. This is usually done through colours, colour theory is a really big part of art and I, if I’m honest only barely understand its full impact and subtleties, as I make some really bad colour mistakes but in essence its about using colour to reflect moods, what makes it worse is colours are not just one thing, take blue it is a cold colour, but also relaxing, and reminds people of the sea or the sky.

example: “Worship”

Of course you don’t need all of these take really abstract art, or simply colours on a canvas contains little imagery but contains intense emotion and colour, which can give it a message or meaning.

One of the biggest thing is practice and sticking with it, mistakes happen and sometimes those mistakes can lead to interesting places and some amazing discoveries. Its been an interesting couple of years and I am still very much finding my feet as I try to make my way as an artist, but as tough as its been financially as I struggle to make ends meet, it has also been so amazing, I have opportunities I may have never had if I kept my work as just something I did, instead of letting God use it and take me where He wants.

Anyway, my time has gone, hopefully I have given you a taste of art in worship and what I do, I’ll finish this at home and make sure you get to see it when its done.

Thanks for having me.

image created during real talk:

Note:

You can find more of my work at various places across the web, the biggest two are DeviantArt and RedBubble