Art and Aesthetics

Although our art falls short of God’s glory, it can still point to His greatness and grace.

I’ve been thinking about the intersection of social media and art and how we create to express ourselves and our ideas. We like to think of ourselves as limitless and boundless in our creativity, but I don’t think this is true.

We are limited by our means. 

This is easy to understand. We have financial limitations which hinder our ability to create what we want. As a music producer, I am limited by what recording software I can afford. As a musician, I am limited by the types and quality of the instruments I can purchase. Can I be creative with what I have? Absolutely. But I am not boundless in my creativity because I am constrained by the reach of my money.

We are limited by our medium.

While we can use multiple mediums, we’re still trying to grapple with tools that express our ideas. Even with written words on a page, we are limited by vocabulary and grammatical constructions. When we think we have total control of our media – the ability to shoot film or publish posts on a blog, we are limited by the systems we use. For instance, my blog is hosted on Tumblr, and while I can choose a theme and even make a theme from scratch with HTML, I am still bound by their platform.

The concept of aesthetics and the corruption of truth. 

Because we are limited by our means and the mediums we use, we resort to aesthetics. We are content with getting the overall vibe or the general feel out to our audience. This is how the meaning of the artist gets distorted. The artist is always confined, always constricted. There is no such thing as an infinite canvas. The artist is limited in communication, and this often leads to the corruption of the artist’s idea. A good artist is able to create and retain the message, despite the means and the medium.

Our limitless God and his glorious gospel.

And this is why God is The Good Artist. He is not bound; his canvas is infinite. Not only does he paint in broad strokes – he dabbles in the details. His magnificence is shown in the minutiae. So from the glory of the heavens to the smallest sands of the sea – he reveals his beauty. And not only in nature, but in people is his sovereignty shown. Our hearts are his handiwork. And his message is clear: I am God, and I love you.