Second Wind

A particular member of my church seems to enjoy commissioning me to create artistic pieces for our Sunday worship service-first it was a sign for the front door, now two larger ones.

I put off the second project for a few weeks because I felt completely drained and thought being creative was the last thing I could do in my spare time. However, this morning I started reading a book I just ordered called Refractions. The book is by Makoto Fujimura, and it pulls from blog entries he has written over the last couple years charting his journey as an artist.

On page 15 Mako writes the following: "The process of creating renews my spirit, and I find myself attuned to the details of life rather than being stressed by being overwhelmed...creating art opens my heart to see and listen to the world around me, opening a new vista of experience."

After reading Mako's words, I finished up my breakfast and headed down the street to Paper Source with a creative vision in my head for an art project. I then spent the entire afternoon working quietly with my hands. The time was enlivening, encouraging, and renewing. As I busied myself with paper, glue, and scissors, I felt a second wind come over my soul...

In a few weeks, i'll get a 4-day "second wind" as I travel up to NYC for the International Arts Movement's Encounter conference, attending as a creative catalyst. My time in the city will be sprinkled with a few meetings with creative types i've met over the last several months, one of whom invited me to sit in on her drawing class :). I've only been to NYC twice in my life and both times it was due in part to a visit to the International Arts Movement studio. Mako started IAM (as it is known for short) over ten years ago with a goal to bring together artists to wrestle with questions of art, faith, and humanity. A few years ago, a generous man with a particular interest in empowering creatives with resources-who shall remain nameless here-, donated funds for IAM to purchase a studio space. In the heart of Manhattan, IAM's 3839 Studio space now stands as a light in the darkness. The space embodies much of my own vision, ie. a vision to create and facilitate a cultural "breathing space" that will foster community building and encourage thoughtul contemplation.

Since discovering Mako's work last summer, i've lived for the better-realizing that the vision laid upon my heart is shared by others. Just visiting with the IAM staff, I have been encouraged by how intentionally they live day-to-day, seeking to marry their love of particular art forms with their faith and bring their deepest convictions to light through the way they engage the world. As I read Mako's words and interact with various creatives on an almost daily basis, i'm reminded that I too get a second wind when I work with my hands and heart to make something beautiful. I'm reminded in creating artwork that, as Dostovesky once said “beauty will save the world.” Such beauty, when it's expressed in a work of art, music, or story comes from within. Solzhenitsyn plays well on Dostovesky's sentiment in stating the following (and with these statements i'll close):

Art opens even the chilled, darkened heart to high spiritual experience. Through the instrumentality of art we are sometimes sent—vaguely, briefly—insights which logical processes of thought cannot attain.

Like the tiny mirror of the fairy tale: you look into it and see—not yourself—but for one fleeting moment the Unattainable to which you cannot leap or fly. And the heart aches…
-Beauty Will Save the World by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn