“You gotta have art”
read the bright yellow button that my upbeat, energetic teacher wore on her smock, along with a poster hanging on the door to my favorite hideaway from the halls and hangouts of high school. Those words formed me, shaped me, and taught me.
Art is not a supporting role in life. It’s essential.
It is the gateway to beauty and a fight for hope in the ugly; windows into the soul and expressions words cannot voice.
I believe in the words Pope John Paul II shared in a “Letter to Artists” in 1999, that “society needs artists, just as it needs scientists, technicians, workers, professional people, witnesses of the faith, teachers, fathers and mothers.” He said, “the proof of God is Beauty.” Yes.
When our hope waned in the height of the pandemic, did you notice what rose? Expression. Art. Professionals began sharing their work with the world and museums opened virtual tours and experiences…for free. Amateurs and dabblers ordered their own art and craft supplies, not just to fill time, but to express the innate call for beauty when things grew too chaotic and dim. Beauty and art are most needed in dark times. Instead of providing a distraction, the process and experiences of art call us into the beauty of what is holy and/or healing.
Visio Divina
Consider the “art of prayer.”
Visio Divina, a prayer of divine ‘seeing’, allows God to speak through art, imagery and senses beyond the more widely known practice of reading, meditating, and contemplating Scripture. Visio Divina engages paintings, mosaics, sculpture, stained glass windows, nature, or icons to help stretch yourself to see beyond first impressions and your own understanding, and begin listening to the voice of God.
Choose any visual element that can help center your mind on prayer. Close your eyes, breathe deep, ask God to clear your mind, and invite Him into this prayer time with you. Ask Him specifically to speak to you, and ask Him to guide you to a verse or passage in Scripture.
Open your eyes to gaze on the artwork you chose, and simply let your eyes and mind focus on a section that you were first drawn to. It may be a figure, color, shape or texture. Stay there and focus for a minute or two. Then close your eyes and see that portion of the image in your mind. What are you feeling in your heart? Is God whispering to you? What thoughts are stirring?
Now open your eyes and look again, this time at the entire image. Stay there until the art stirs an emotion, a word, phrase or Scripture in your heart. It might feel long and awkward, but stretch yourself. What is God saying? Pay attention to your thoughts, questions and emotions. Continue beyond what’s comfortable, and then close and rest your eyes. Pray through the image, gaze, rest, and gaze again. Bring every thought, word, question and emotion to God without your own judgment or shame, and let Him respond as your Creator who knows you intimately and loves you deeply.
You gotta have art. And God can use it to speak to you.