For
ages the artist has been seen as inspired and having a God-given
gift. Yet, in the last few decades art has markedly deteriorated. It started way back in the Renaissance when the human became the center of the
universe and of his creativity. Less and less creativity was seen as
something given by God. That trend, as it continued to develop over time,
unfortunately had some side effects. Humans became ego centered,
arrogant, because after all they thought that
this genius was all inside; some just have more of it somehow tucked
away in their cells. Before this ego centeredness, the artist was
fairly humble. In their humility they knew their creations were a
God-gift. With that thought they not only could not take all the
credit for their superb creations, it also let them off the hook when
things didn't turn out quite so well. It most likely staved off
depression which now artists are quite prone to.1
The
current self centered attitude serves materialism well.
The fingers of exploitation are reaching into the arts. The new
idea taught in art school is that the artist comes up with some
creation, a concept, and the most important thing they then learn is
to convince the viewer that the product is what they claim it to be
There is no talk of inspiration. Selling concepts has taken over the
art world to a large extend. Talent is not necessarily needed. In the same vein
someone with money who has an idea can hire an artist and have them
produce that idea. The person with the idea gets hailed as artist. The real
artist has been degraded as pure laborer. That is the trend.2
What
is also quite sad is that some art students take drugs or deprive
themselves of sleep in order to produce hallucinations so that they
have a source of inspiration. These young people have been starved
and deprived of inspiration by a society who claims there is no such
a thing a God-given inspiration. 3
Einstein said: “Logic will get
you from A to B, Imagination will take you everywhere.” It is this
imagination that comes from God-inspiration. Some artists can still
be viewed as inspired. While on one hand there is a trend in the arts that moves toward a dark pit, there is also a dawning of the arts that is bringing in the light of a new dawn. Akiane Kramarik, a prodigy, God inspired to paint since
the age of four is one on the small list of such inspired artists.
Since Visions, Dreams and Imagination are suspect, there are voices raised in an effort to discredit her art no matter how amazing
and genuine it is. No matter the voices, however, she is one of the leaders of truly inspired art.
Architecture tells us also the story of a people. We have no more
front porches, which in itself is remarkable. Instead we have garage
doors which close behind the car and show an almost industrial “keep
out” facade. The front door is often hidden. We make sure there is
a fence around the yard. The front lawn is shaved clean; drowned in
chemicals. A uniformed green lawn is an interesting symbol, for the
frequently shown 'pretend happy' face we put on. We have no patience
for the wild, like wild flowers or for animals. They are trained to
live within human confines, we pick up their poop so that it does not
mess up our pristine lawns that contain our domesticated flowers. All houses look like tightly closed up boxes. However, even that is
not enough. Some people have a vicious dog in their yard to keep
strangers away and signs on their door: “No soliciting.” Nothing
can come in, nothing can come out....that is, nothing
human and natural....although there is plenty coming in through
Television and media.
A friend of mine who build a house in a nice neighborhood, chose to
leave some of the trees up and build carefully as not to destroy too
much of the natural habitat. Trees, vines and beautiful plants
surround her house. Since she has to abide by neighborhood
regulations, her yard has to meet certain standards; so many feet
toward the road has to be green lawn. She was abiding by all those
rules. Although her plants are not subject to removal, people are
still calling the city and she gets citations because she has a
natural habitat which others feel is unacceptable and is disturbing
to the image of their neighborhood.
Writing and Journalism has also been an inspirational art. However,
writers can bring inspiration or they can lead us down a dark trail.
The novels of Ayn Rand for example are leading this country through a kind of dark mist while for example Jim Stoveall's books are the opposite, a
gift of inspiration.
Music is another art that has changed drastically, as has the
attitude toward it. Many symphonies have money trouble or had to close down. Music opens the soul, and what speaks to the soul cannot
be understood with a rational mind. Hence the musicians need to serve
now as translators because the current Music education is not
adequate or in some instances missing all together, and the audience
has trouble understanding the music performances.
Then there is another type of music that is being created. Lately
there have been songs composed which have a certain whine to them. If
you listen carefully it is almost like people are crying and
screaming. I think our souls are crying. A Sufi visionary said of
Jazz that it is a music for the body and the material plane. Indeed
this confirms what I felt listening to Jazz. I don't know if all Jazz is supporting the material plane, and it could very well be that each plane needs its specific music. However, to much of one thing can still tilt the balance. The deterioration of the
arts shows that we have disconnected from our source, and that we are
in disregard of inspiration and revelation.
Again, reiterating that I am speaking about the mass trend, there
are the exceptions. One such exception is a composer, Mark Hayes
who writes beautiful sacred music. However, do not misunderstand me, it is not necessarily sacred music, or sacred art alone that can be inspired. Inspired art comes from our deepest essence, a God-given essence that is within all humans. I pray that the few inspired individuals in our time will have the
power to raise the arts back up. At the Opera house at my hometown
there is a saying: “With the arts a nation will rise or it will
fall.” The question is, will more artists allow inspiration to take hold of their creations and acknowledge that there is a creative force larger
than them that guides them?
1Part
of this idea came from Elisabeth Gilbert's TED talk “The elusive
creative genius:
2From a conversation with artists who graduated within the last 3 years
3From a conversation with artists who graduated within the last 3 years
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