An artist in need of help...

[TruthSeeker123]

Background info I am an amateur photographer and have a keen interest in stop motion animation and stick figure cartoons. I feel like I'm overflowing with creativity in the realm of stick figure animation. But, I don't know whether God wants me to pursue it.

You see, I bought my camera without consulting God first due to the influence of a friend and my childhood creative interests. I was ridden with guilt for buy the camera and going into photography without getting God's approval first. After sometime God gave me peace on the matter.

Now, I am asking, praying and fasting to know whether God wants me to use stick figure drawings as a creative outlet since it is the least expensive creative medium and holds the least danger. Let me explain: I love photographing people and nature, but I am not mobile at the moment (I'm working on it) and people aren't always available to photograph. Also I don't have the time to edit the photographs and do everything else that goes with it. Drawing is the next best thing. I can do it anywhere at anytime and I don't have to inconvenience anyone. I can steal moments from my day to draw a few stick figures and hone my craft.

The questions

So my question are:

• How do you express yourself creatively?
• Have you ever been in my position before?
• How has the Lord answered you?
• How can I expect God to answer me on this one?
• Do you think I am too pedantic, making something out of nothing?

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. :D

[DemetriaBeth]

Hi..

I enjoyed reading your post. It shows that your are thankful to God for your creative abilities and are trying to show it. I am an artist as well. Over the years i have learned that if we are diligent with the talents that God bestows on us, He will provide us with opportunities to grow those talents. Your idea to draw is a wonderful one. When you do something that stimulates your creativity, it sparks more creativity.

[TruthSeeker123]

Thank you for the encouragement, DemetriaBeth and dgrimm. I will forge ahead and make use of the talent the Lord has entrusted me with.

[TruthSeeker123]

Will do. I have a blog that I started on which I aim to log my progress. You can check it out here: Capturing Bits of Life.

[Kevin H]

We are not Muslims nor worshipers of the fates. God has given us the freedom to think and to do, and if we allow him he will guide us. He does not expect us to play "Mother, may I?" with him.

We have the Bible to teach us God's will and the fellowship with other believers to help us share what we know (and even what we don't know) to help us understand God's word better. We have a oneness of freedom and restraint. We are restrained by love and what material we have available to work with.

There is an illustration of this in how there was a marble rock that an artist wanted to make a sculpture from. The artist chipped away and chipped away and finally gave up saying that the rock was worthless and that no one could make anything of it. Well another artist thought that he would give the rock a try, so he also began chipping away here and there, however he also came to the conclusion that the rock was worthless and the rock was simply thrown away and sat in the yard of the local church.

One day the city decided that it wanted to make a statue to illustrate a Bible story that it felt symbolized the spirit of the city. They asked another artist to make the sculpture. Now as usual when politicians decide to do something, they do it as cheaply as possible. They gave the artist that old worthless stone telling him that they knew that the stone was worthless and that they were not expecting anything much, and for the artist to only do what he could with that old thrown away piece of junk.

So the artist was restrained by the theme of the sculpture, by working not with a fresh stone but one that had a lot of the stone chipped away by the other two artists who tried to make something out of that stone, and the fact that he was dealing with a stone that was found to be worthless to work with. Great restrictions indeed. However, whenever you look at photos of the stone, or if you have even had the pleasure of seeing that stone it just screams of the freedom and creativity the artist, Michelangelo was able to express in sculpturing David.

I would like to share something now, but with a word of caution. When I was in college, one of the fads that passed through the campus was the study of the philosophy "Aesthetic Realism" by Eli Siegel. Siegel lived from 1902 to 1978 I believe, dying soon after I began to study of his thought. After his death there was a power struggle among his leading students. The group that won out tended to view him as almost a religion, that Siegel is the final word, that every few words out of your mouth needs to include a statement of gratitude to Mr. Siegel and to tell your dramatic autobiography about how miserable your life was until you met Aesthetic Realism. And while there is a lot of truth to those ideas, I tend to see them as being blown out of balance. Now his followers have been hurt because they did indeed come across some tremendous information from a man well a head of his time and thus mistreated by the press, and they are trying to be fair to that situation, I still see them as going a little too far. While they were not nearly as fanatical as at least one of the groups that lost out, over the next 5 years came to where many of us who appreciate Mr. Siegel's thought were not comfortable to be actively associated with the foundation. I still appreciate the work of the foundation, but prefer to use it's publications and be a few steps away from it.

I am enclosing a link on a photographer who uses Aesthetic Realism in his work and his article has several other links that I believe you will find useful: http://www.mindspring.com/~davidmbernstein/ another I just found is: http://www.lenbernstein.com/

By the way, a couple of students who were even more fanatical, when they lost the power struggle they did a complete about face and have become vicious opponents to the foundation and Mr. Siegel and two boys from these families, Michael Bluejay and Adam Mali, who were probably pre and early teen when I was studying, and I have to admit I did not see how they fit in to what we were being taught. I thought they were the most arrogant narrow minded... have you ever met some children who you would like to give them to abusive parents? Anyway they have started a website opposing Aesthetic Realism calling it a cult, and the foundation has another website called "Encountering the lies" to answer their website. Now the opposing website does have some truth to it, however they are making a mountain out of a hill and I believe that Siegel's thought is highly useful and that their website will scare people away from looking at his thought. But I want to share both sites, the truth is someplace in between. : http://michaelbluejay.com/x/ and http://www.counteringthelies.com/ Mr. Siegel's thought is very useful and I believe that you will find it very useful as you develop you art, but there is also that other stuff going on that I want to warn you about.

[LynnDel]

Truthseeker, Since God has given you a talent and you are excited about using it for Him, I would say to move ahead, and do it prayerfully. He may not answer with a striking Yay or Nay, but once you step ahead, He will guide you.

LD

[TruthSeeker123]

Thank you, Kevin H and LynnDel, for responding. And thank you for taking the time to introduce me to Aesthetic Realism, Kevin H. I hear what you're saying about working with my restrictions and not giving up on photography or putting it on ice. I will certainly look for opportunities. Creative freedom within restrictions reminds me of a short essay A.G. Gardiner wrote entitled The Rule of the Road. Have you read it before?

I'm glad that you touched on the things that trouble you about the way I see God. Talking about our perceptions of God is one of the things I like doing because you learn more about God by talking about Him, and you get to see how other people make sense of the world around them. I understand that God has given us the freedom to choose and that He desires us to exercise that freedom of choice within the realm of morality.

The reason for my perception is that somewhere along the way I picked up that God has a say over when and where we use our talents and gifts. Sometimes He doesn't want us to use our gifts, for whatever reason, even though we intend to bring Him glory. Maybe it's because our hearts aren't right, our intentions aren't as pure as they should be or the exercise of that gift in that specific situation will have bad consequences. A biblical example, and I might very well be misapplying this incident, is that of the leper who asked Jesus to cleanse him. Jesus granted his request and admonished him to go directly to the priest, present the necessary offerings in compliance with the ceremonial law and not talk to anyone along the way. The leper disobeyed Christ and told his whole household and everyone he encountered about the healing. As a result Jesus couldn't enter that region for some time.

I admit that I didn't receive any instruction akin to this from Christ yet I am cautious as I do not wish to incur His displeasure. Artistic expression is very close to my heart and I want to proceed with His blessing. But, I understand what you are saying, Kevin H. And by God's grace, I will adjust my perception.

I am a frugal person therefore one of the questions I struggle with is: Does the expense of art materials justify the use and improvement of my God-given talent? Can't the money be put to better use by funding missionary endeavours? I have to smile because reading the last question reminds me of Judas' and the disciples' question when the woman with the alabaster box poured its contents over Jesus out of gratitude, unknowingly preparing Him for burial. And who says that art is not a missionary endeavour? That God can't use the visual arts to convict people and lead them to repentance? That He can't use the art to convict me and lead me to repentance? So, I think I just answered my questions.

Thank you for helping me.

[TruthSeeker123]

I realised this morning from where I got the beliefs Kevin H warned me about. In my country there is a married couple that teaches people the Biblical principles that should our relationships with our spouses and family. I listened to a seminar of theirs last night (recorded at our version of GYC). It was about surrendering every thought, desire, will, decision, dream, irritation, misconception, heartache, lust, greed, etc. to God and asking Him in every instance what His will is and then complying with that Will. I share their understanding of what a life fully surrendered to God looks like. This belief I had prior to hearing theirs.

So, my question is do you believe the same? Please give an explanation.