"We redeem the empty stage with dance and movement."
1/ What is your definition of art? Do you think it is congruent with the idea that God is the Creator, the Artist God?
The first question: that's deep. I believe that art is something intrinsic, something real, inside coming to surface and colliding in contact with the material world. Whether collaborative, as in medieval artists who built the soaring cathedrals--or individual, with expressionists voicing their visions onto canvases, art connects the human soul, the aesthetic eye, the motion of hands all together with concrete medium to deliver that which is true and in such a way that no other thing, logic or science or professionalism, can. And God is indeed the ultimate Artistic One, the most real, indeed The Reality who invades our reality with that which is most true.
2/ Think about something you believe is beautiful. Do you believe that beauty is objective (not dependent on what we think or feel) or subjective (in the eye of the beholder)?
Beauty is almost entirely subjective, except we may forget such a thing as collective subjectivity, or in Jungian terms a collective consciousness which comes to consensus in judgment of that which is beautiful, or true, or good. For one, almost everyone admires skill and vision, or we can say, craft and genius. Style preference may vary, but these two remain cornerstones to art universally.
3/ Is beauty important to God? If so, why? Why is beauty important to us?
Often things that seem pointless to us, such as pain (which is also utterly brutal), usually offer no immediate gratification of pragmatic measures. Likewise, "art for art's sake" also seems absolutely ridiculous. Personally, I don't believe in such in a statement. I don't believe that art can escape from fundamentally human and therefore bias and therefore even so harsh as propaganda. I don't, however, believe that art or beauty must be "practical." I'm pretty sure that God didn't have to make the Grand Canyon or bestow lavishing colors on a single butterfly. I think it's out of delight; I think He just had fun. The sheer pleasure of aesthetics and potential inspiration derived is immeasurable. Without it, I don't think I can go on living, let alone the magnificently creative and genius God who must have had very fine taste.
4/ In your own words, express what you think Madeleine L’Engle means when she writes, “To paint a picture or write a story or to compose a song is an incarnational activity.”
Foremost, reaching into the creativity inherently within a human is akin to tapping into a kind of divinity. The imago dei allows us, in a God-like manner, to find fluidity and discover the rhythms of the this world in refreshing ways unimagined before. To write a story means living and walking and listening among the characters in their distinct world. It is to take part, to commune, with reality.
5/ Think about a story (book, movie, play, etc.)or work of art that moved you. Was it a story or work of redemption?
Many many things have moved me, the most recently being, ironically, a rather sentimental Japanese film of the first love experience. Because of falling in love, the heroine Shizuru, young and with child-like demeanor for her age, determines to mature, to become a woman worthy of Segawa's love. And along with her maturity, also the maturity of the terminal disease inside of her. I don't know if technically that can be called a redemption story. It is actually heavily influenced by Buddhism and the idea of reincarnation, that one connects with another due to special bonding from a previous life, a bonding which will continue as the person returns in the next life in a different form. This bond, or more specifically the love between Shizuru and Segawa, is what, for that moment and time, tied the two together irrevocably. I think it's more like a story of sacrifice and fidelity. Perhaps, what is redeemed is not the individuals but the time they were together....
1/ What is your definition of art? Do you think it is congruent with the idea that God is the Creator, the Artist God?
The first question: that's deep. I believe that art is something intrinsic, something real, inside coming to surface and colliding in contact with the material world. Whether collaborative, as in medieval artists who built the soaring cathedrals--or individual, with expressionists voicing their visions onto canvases, art connects the human soul, the aesthetic eye, the motion of hands all together with concrete medium to deliver that which is true and in such a way that no other thing, logic or science or professionalism, can. And God is indeed the ultimate Artistic One, the most real, indeed The Reality who invades our reality with that which is most true.
2/ Think about something you believe is beautiful. Do you believe that beauty is objective (not dependent on what we think or feel) or subjective (in the eye of the beholder)?
Beauty is almost entirely subjective, except we may forget such a thing as collective subjectivity, or in Jungian terms a collective consciousness which comes to consensus in judgment of that which is beautiful, or true, or good. For one, almost everyone admires skill and vision, or we can say, craft and genius. Style preference may vary, but these two remain cornerstones to art universally.
3/ Is beauty important to God? If so, why? Why is beauty important to us?
Often things that seem pointless to us, such as pain (which is also utterly brutal), usually offer no immediate gratification of pragmatic measures. Likewise, "art for art's sake" also seems absolutely ridiculous. Personally, I don't believe in such in a statement. I don't believe that art can escape from fundamentally human and therefore bias and therefore even so harsh as propaganda. I don't, however, believe that art or beauty must be "practical." I'm pretty sure that God didn't have to make the Grand Canyon or bestow lavishing colors on a single butterfly. I think it's out of delight; I think He just had fun. The sheer pleasure of aesthetics and potential inspiration derived is immeasurable. Without it, I don't think I can go on living, let alone the magnificently creative and genius God who must have had very fine taste.
4/ In your own words, express what you think Madeleine L’Engle means when she writes, “To paint a picture or write a story or to compose a song is an incarnational activity.”
Foremost, reaching into the creativity inherently within a human is akin to tapping into a kind of divinity. The imago dei allows us, in a God-like manner, to find fluidity and discover the rhythms of the this world in refreshing ways unimagined before. To write a story means living and walking and listening among the characters in their distinct world. It is to take part, to commune, with reality.
5/ Think about a story (book, movie, play, etc.)or work of art that moved you. Was it a story or work of redemption?
Many many things have moved me, the most recently being, ironically, a rather sentimental Japanese film of the first love experience. Because of falling in love, the heroine Shizuru, young and with child-like demeanor for her age, determines to mature, to become a woman worthy of Segawa's love. And along with her maturity, also the maturity of the terminal disease inside of her. I don't know if technically that can be called a redemption story. It is actually heavily influenced by Buddhism and the idea of reincarnation, that one connects with another due to special bonding from a previous life, a bonding which will continue as the person returns in the next life in a different form. This bond, or more specifically the love between Shizuru and Segawa, is what, for that moment and time, tied the two together irrevocably. I think it's more like a story of sacrifice and fidelity. Perhaps, what is redeemed is not the individuals but the time they were together....
No comments:
Post a Comment