The Gift of Art

In the classical tradition, a discipline was termed an art because it led to a product. Geometry and Arithmatic are thus considered arts in that they produce geometrical shapes and numerical quantities, respectively. In a more material sense, carpentry is an art in that through it one produces any number of goods: furniture, toys, tools, homes, and so on. These goods are useful for ulterior ends. But it is not just a product that affirms a discipline as an Art—if it were to be so, there would not be much of an interest in learning such a thing. Man’s sensibilities would never come into play. The aesthetic movement of the 19^th Century coined the phrase, “Art for art’s sake”. With this there became an added dimension to the understanding of Art—production itself is now desirous for its own sake—art did not have to be for the purpose of another thing, it could just be. It also could just be without any connection to its source.

But can art ever be produced into its own distinct and autonomous existence? I don’t believe that it can. But why not? In the contemporary sense, art is an outpouring of the creative faculty (still in line with the traditional sense as there is a product involved). This can take the form of music, illustration, literature, theater, and so on. I do not preclude any of the sciences from being considered arts, and nor do I; I refer here to only the Fine Arts simply because I believe they illustrate the point all the more clearly. With each production there is an impartation of self to that object. They are at once old, and new—foreign, yet familiar. Art cannot be wholly other. There is definite link between creator and created. Any drawing—pencil or pen—shall have contours, and shadings familiar and comfortable to the hand that produces them.

The peculiar smile in the portrait of a woman as she sits in a park is the impression of the artist that his subject is light-hearted. Whether or not it is true of the woman posing for the artist, the artist has seen it, and he has captured it. He has made it his, and there it lies as a witness to his vision. Of course, there are objective qualities of any artwork that may lead to a collective consideration of greatness. These are not discounted—but each, and every production is the creation of a being. The creations of man are passageways to his inner being—reflections of the source whence they came. They may come out as the delightful symphonies of Bach, or the surreal paintings of Picasso, Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”, or Shakespeare’s “Twelth Night”—but all of these are productions of man, and some part of those men becomes a part of those productions.

While this may be true—that in producing art we are granting a reflection of our inner being—we must stray from the perception that this originality is purely ours, rather, as C.S. Lewis says: “[originality] is the prerogative of God alone”. It is not that we wrench from God his creative act, rather, we participate in the Creation by offering reflections of the Divine Beauty through our own endowed talents, and respective mediums. It is actually in creating that we more perfectly participate in being created in the image and likeness of God. This is drawn from Tolkien’s own personal theory of “sub-creation”,

Therefore, Tolkien continued, not merely the abstract thoughts of man but also his imaginative inventions must originate with God, and must in consequence reflect something of eternal truth. In making a myth…a storyteller, or ‘sub-creator’…is actually fulfilling God’s purpose, and reflecting a splintered fragment of the true light. Pagan myths are therefore never just ‘lies’: there is always something of truth in them.

There is another side to the production of art well worth considering: posterity. How many of us can say that we own something that was created by an ancestor, and passed down through the ages? I imagine few—though I would hope for more. I believe there exists a consensus that all things done manually carry more meaning than those purchased at a steal of a price. I could buy a birthday card, or I could take the time to design one on a blank piece of paper. I could send an email, or I could write, by hand, a letter to a loved one. I could buy a new toy from Hasbro, or I could carve a toy soldier from a block of wood. The wooden rocking horse that is passed down from age to age didn’t exist at one point. It came into an ancestor’s mind, and it became tangibly manifest through his hands. When you sit and play on that rocking horse you are participating in a vision that belongs to your forefather. He saw children laughing, and truly riding into the sunset. There is a sense of pride, tradition, and love that is passed down. The gift of art.

Posterity, and Godliness. In creating art, we participate in revealing the never-ending expanse of truth. This is a good for evangelization, certainly. There are mediums that will speak to all sorts of people. But this is even more important for us as individuals, and as created beings of God. God, in His infinite Love, created. Man, too, creates because man is a likeness of God. We share in His joy, and in His love by participating in His work. In creating art, we pass on that joy that we’ve come to love and is so central to our being. We should all find an art that we are drawn to. It is God’s gift to us that we should participate with Him—let us use our talents with our children in mind, and for God's greater glory.