A couple weeks ago I went on an art retreat. One night, we went around the room and each shared our creative process, and that really moved me. We’d been talking about how our creativity is one of the ways that we reflect who God is—God, of whom the first thing we learn is that he is creative. It was so beautiful to hear how each person had such a unique process of creativity, unique to them but unique also in how that person’s creativity is a working with God to bring beauty into the world. I got in touch with the sacredness of our creativity on a level I hadn’t before, whether that creativity is channeled through art or anything else.
Going back to the art rooms to continue painting together after hearing about the ways people tap into their creativity and connect with God in the process was particularly beautiful, as each person was painting something that showed something of their own heart. I love art community because you get to know people so particularly, in ways that could never be expressed in other ways of communication. To see people’s expression of what they hold dear in light of creativity being a sacred trait that is a reflection of God and a connection with him was powerful. And how generous he is that he lets the artist’s own style and personalty shine through so much in the expression of beauty or love or truth, or pain. That he is saying something to the heart of the artist and some echo of that is being expressed, and he is revealed but through the personality of the artist.
I’ve never painted anything quite like this. I just had a desire to create a souvenir of the time I got to spend painting with people I love and people I came to love. I didn’t expect it to become an expression of creativity and the artist soul pouring forth, but that’s the theme the Lord has been whispering in my heart, and it came out in the painting.
