an excerpt from: The Creation of the World as a Model for Artists

An excerpt from: The Creation of the World as a Model for Artists

...Everything that God created tells us something about God. All the songs that Duke Ellington wrote (all 2000 of them) tell us something about Duke Ellington. If I study Duke’s charts, the works of his hands, I will grow in a better knowledge of Duke. And if I study the works of God’s hands, of which Duke Ellington is one, I will grow in a better knowledge of God. In fact, isn’t that the point of creating: to make known, to make tangible, that which the author knows and enjoys already (even if it is making known the pleasure found in the process of exploration)? Duke hears a conversation in his head and feels an emotion in his soul that he takes pleasure in, and he works to articulate what he knows and enjoys to the listener through a song. The listener hears Duke’s expression (the song) and has the opportunity then to know and enjoy what Duke knew and enjoyed.

Now, do we understand, and not deny, that Duke Ellington is a creation of God? So what is God saying about Himself in that He made Duke Ellington and made him with the abilities, skill, temperament, skin tone, swing, etc… that He did? Aren’t we missing out on the knowledge and pleasure of God when we don’t ask these questions of God about the works of His hands? What artists create should help them, and hopefully us, learn about God’s invisible attributes, specifically His eternal power and divine nature, spanning the full range between the simple beauties and the impossibilities of God, because the artist and his abilities are God’s expression of what He has already known and enjoyed in Himself.

...God made people with many different languages and gave them differing resources to work with. The span of God’s creative design in the race of men is itself evidence of the amazing creativity of God. No two men are the same man, and there should be no boasting coming from the mouth of a man, especially from artist/creative types, except to boast of Christ who has made it possible for man to intimately know his Creator and behold the Being of infinite, genius, creative ability. And more than just know Him, but to actually be called by Him a son of God (Rom. 9:25-26).

So when I say that the creation of the world is a model for artists, think about this: what creative work is more amazing, more grand, more aesthetically beautiful, more wrought with skill, more full of wonder, more laden with knowledge, or more benevolent than the creation of the world, the entire universe, and every single creation that is in them? Can you think of anything…? So what was their Author thinking about when He made them? What did He know and enjoy that moved Him to express Himself in such a way? From what motive did He create?

Since God created so well, it seems to follow that we would do well to take a lesson or two from God. This is what I am trying to get our minds around when I say that the creation of the world is a model for artists to listen to very seriously.

GOD COMMUNES WITH GOD – SPHERE ONE...

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excerpt from The Affections of the Heart in Art - a wrestling for the full pleasures in art Jason Harms