Category: artist development

Arts and Education

Derek May 19, 2009

Artist tend to get solipsistic if not connected to thinkers or education. They need a context for their creative processes. Cistern gazing (getting lost in one’s own process) or over insularity are central shadows in most arts communites I’ve lived in. This is why i think historically, artists have hung out with thinkers. The two are meant to occupy the same cafe.

The teacher and the role of priest or prophet go together. In Jesus you see both aspects. Clear thinking is essential for artists to be near, so that they do not turn their process in on themselves or towards some form of hedonism. Celebrity is not a high enough goal. Artists want to express something meaningful–even the zeitgeist of their time.

Having worked with the arts for many years, i see several reasons for a need for clear exchange between arts and education. One is that educational institutions tend to have resources to held nurture and birth creative projects. Another is that education needs the life and innovation artist bring. There is also a spiritual dimension which artist should carry which is desperately lacking at most educational settings.

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Transformers- Artist in Disguise

Derek April 25, 2008

Finding a context for your gifting isn’t easy. For artist who want a larger more spiritual or transcendent context, the art world doesn’t offer much, and unforturtunately, the church is often also silent. But there is a metaphysical house or spiritual structure being built globally, that excites us with a true context into which to create our works of art, and inspire the cities and nations with a fresh Voice.

We are part of a global collaboration which is really about downloading heaven onto earth through the arts. In this way, our art provides a space or container for The Divine. Some say, art always does this. But with the pressures of commerce and fame, one rarely sees an artist truly being motivated by “building a house for God to dwell in.” But I think there is no lower context which is truly inspiring to most artists. Arts were meant to change the world. Change begins with changing the heart, or spirit or the way of seeing the world.

The arts invite the spiritual realm. Through art we are able to touch something transcendent. Not necesarily religious but definitely more than meets the eye–something spiritual! Everyone desires that their life have meaning–art declares that indeed life does mean something, and that we are in an important metanarrative which matters in the universe. We are part of a story that God is telling! The symbolizers know this, and sense that there is something other which helps interpret our lives as more than jobs and tasks, which tells us our lives symbolize something purposeful, something greater.

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