One Pilgrim’s Process – March SOL #9

“To journey and to be transformed
by the journey
is to be a pilgrim.”
by Mark Nepo

I find myself doing a lot of processing when I am creating an art piece so I often wonder about the “inside scoop” behind the work of other artists.  This month I have been working on two pieces for a vigil taking place at our church on Good Friday.  There are 6 of us creating works for 12 stations of the cross.   The mediums are varied and we are all coming to this project from very different places.

I am charged with writing an invitation to this vigil.  I have spent the evening perusing Luci Shaw’s book, Breath for the Bones,  Art, Imagination and Spirit: Reflections on Creativity and Faith for quotations to describe the experience our working artist group is hoping to engage.  I think I found it in these words:

“But true art neither moralizes nor preaches: its primary goal is not the spread of a doctrine or “message.”  No, art is in a different category.  It is a qualitatively distinctive activity.  Existing for the delight and illumination (through imagination as well as intelligence) of both artist and audience, it stands on its own – primary, independent, unique.”

Ms. Shaw goes on to write in another chapter: “Often, however, art is veiled – couched in clues and symbols, a shadow that touches reality, that gives us a glimpse of the indescribable, that invites us farther up and farther in.  It will not always show all of itself or the whole truth at one viewing, nor will it preach a four-point sermon.  but if we are willing to give it our attention, art will begin to open our inner eyes.”

Tomorrow I will share the art piece I have finished.  I’ll share the “inside scoop” at some point too but I think it’s important for viewers to come to their own inner truth first before I reveal all the thinking that went into its creation.