I remember when studying Fine Art how much I wished my friends studying other subjects could come and spend a day doing my degree. I wanted them to enjoy the play, the curiosity, and the exploration. It struck me that I studied the best degree you could find. I loved Fine Art because I loved asking questions of the world around me, and studying Fine Art gave me space to do this. For my degree I could go out and observe, play, make marks, paint, build, design, collaborate, write, and research! Many who see us embarking on our studies in this way roll their eyes and imagine that Fine Art is not a ‘serious degree’ – but this is not at all true. A Fine Art degree can help you to develop a wide range of technical and practical skills, but it can also help you to respond creatively, empathetically, imaginatively, and critically to key issues within our environment, our society, and ourselves. It strikes me then that not only is Fine Art a ‘serious degree’, but crucial for enriching our understanding of our world and our place within it – let’s think about this a bit more.
Working for the wellbeing of creation
The instinct to create can be seen across every human society, across the boundaries of history and geography. This is no coincidence, but a human instinct created by God. At the start if the Bible we see God’s command to Adam and Eve in the garden that they nurture, cultivate, and transform the gift of creation that they are entrusted with. All humans intuitively continue this in different ways, but the joy of studying Fine Art is that you can focus your time on developing this instinct in a more considered and contextualised way. As Fine Art students, you will explore the historical and contemporary ways that humans have made and continue to make ‘art’ (as well as asking questions about how to understand what art is in the first place!). You will also learn to nurture your own creative skills, cultivating and transforming raw (or repurposed!) materials to create personal responses to the created world around you.
Thoughtful and well-crafted artworks can create new ways to see the world, cast new light on situations, places, or things, and bring new conversations into the public imagination. Art can help to enlarge people’s understanding of the world, spark imaginations and change our views of reality. This should excite us as Christians. Through art we have an opportunity to offer a fresh view of the goodness and beauty of God’s creation and initiate conversations about the human nature and behaviour. Art can also help us to build bridges and nurture empathy as we consider what it means to ‘love our neighbours’ creatively and to listen well to our fellow human beings. As artists we can play our part in helping to foster peace and reconciliation in an ever-polarised world.
Artists are also well placed to offer thoughtful challenges and critiques to our society, highlighting injustices, harms, idolatries that stand against God’s good design for our humanity and His creation. Our art can interrogate how our culture falls short of God’s goodness, acting as a mirror to our culture, as well as a catalyst to make changes within it. However, we should be careful that our art doesn’t become propaganda. We don’t need to wield our artworks like a tool or weapon – forcing a gospel . Through genuine interest, exploration, and enjoyment of our making, we begin to learn more about God and His world for ourselves. Listening well and humbly engaging with what God has placed around us is crucial before we even begin to make. Starting in this place, not in the posture of a propagandist, helps us to unravel complex and wonderful ways in which art can bring the beauty of the gospel into view.
Worshipping the God we work for
Fine Art is full of challenges to our faith, but sometimes we are so focused on the challenges we forget to appreciate how much God is at work in the arts! Both in our own making and through looking at the works of others, we can learn so much about God’s character. Our making deeply connects us to God – He is our Creator, weaving together the Universe and displaying His character through it.
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8 v 3)
A lot of art making is about looking. Whether we are painting portraits, creating installations or printing patterns, we are looking at the world around us and exploring how it all works. Then we look at the different materials in front of us and explore how these might help us to communicate something about this world. As Fine Art students, learning to be curious can teach us to appreciate God’s creation. It is striking that God has gifted us a beautiful world, concerned not only with functionality, but also with aesthetics. From the smallest detail to the vast swathes of His creation, God has given us the capacity to see and enjoy all that He has made. The sense of curiosity and the ways of seeing that we learn to cultivate at art school can give us a deeper appreciation of all of this. We learn to recognise the potential for meaning and beauty in everything. Finding truth not only in the big things (like mountains and landscapes) but in the most mundane things (like a soup can or an unmade bed!).
I have always been struck by how God helps us to experience the truth of His reality, viscerally, through works of art – even the art of those who may not know Him. I can distinctly recall going to visit a Richard Serra exhibition when I was a student. It consisted of enormous sheets of steel placed around the room in various formations. Walking around that space gave me such a strong feeling of my smallness and my fragility as a human being, it brought me to questions about mortality and temporality. I had my eyes lifted, through this work, towards the everlasting power of God in contrast to my vulnerable state. The work took me to a place of worship, echoing the truth of Scripture that reminds us that we are like dust and the grass that withers. Not all art points us to God in this way, some greatly challenges our faith. However, I have also found that puzzling through pieces of art, contemplating how they respond to God and His world, has given me a deeper appreciation of God’s generosity towards humanity, as well as how far we often are from recognising it.
Witnessing to the world
We are all affected by the fall, unable to see the beauty and goodness of who God is. Even as He steps into the world in flesh, we fail to recognise Him. This failure to recognise God leads humanity to some very dark things – this is no less true of the art world. Around us we can see self-centredness rewarded, sin celebrated, and God actively maligned. Because the arts is such a visual space, we can see this occurring more vividly than in other spaces. This has often deterred Christians from entering this field. This is tragic because the act of creativity is one that reflects God’s own creative power. It also means that there is an absence of active voices sharing God’s light with the precious human beings working in this field. Unlike many other courses at the University, Fine Art departments are often ripe with rich community. Shared studios, collaborative projects, and group exhibitions mean that you will be working very closely with your coursemates. You’ll experience frustration and celebration together, as well as ordinary moments throughout the year. Demonstrating the difference that Christ makes to the way you live in all of these moments is a powerful witness to those around you. Acting with generosity and empathy, turning up for others, celebrating the successes of others without envy, and refusing to get caught up in the moaning about our tutors – will be noticed.
People in the arts are also often very spiritually curious – you may even be making friends with ‘witches’ or self-proclaimed ‘pagans’! Everyone is searching for a deep sense of meaning and belonging, and in the arts this is often at the forefront of people’s thinking. There is a great need then to make Christ known. It can feel daunting sharing the gospel with people who seem to believe things so different from you, not knowing even where to start in conversation. We rightly don’t want to treat people like projects, or attack them with the gospel. Sharing the gospel doesn’t have to be outside of the ordinary conversations you are having in art school. Remember, you have a shared passion, and a shared language – art! Art naturally opens up questions and conversations at every level, from the ordinary to the profound. Thinking back to the example of the Richard Serra’s work that I gave earlier, his reminder of human fragility up against something so big and powerful – how easily this can draw us into a conversation about a truth central to the gospel. Learning to take an interest and ask the right questions can also go a long way. As we chat about the projects that we are working on we can understand what makes people tick and how they see the world. We can also give insight into the motivations behind our own projects and artworks and how they might reflect something of our faith in God.
Christ is Lord of All... Including the Arts!
We don’t have to paint pictures of the Nativity Scene or of Noah’s Ark in order to worship Christ in our art and share the gospel with others. Art opens up a complex web of ideas and questions that connect us to the deep truths of God. After all, if Christ is Lord over all of creation, if all things were created in Him, through Him, and for Him, then a subject like Fine Art, which takes such a close look at the many facets of creation, should find plenty of signs of Him at work in it!
Reflect and discuss
Think: Think back over what you have studied so far in your degree. Where have you seen God's fingerprints? Where have ideas presented to you challenged what you believed to be true?
Live: What do you think your coursemates would know about what is important to you from the way you live? Is there anything you want to change here?
Speak: Are there topics in your subject that are closer to talking about your outlook on life, God or the gospel? Pray for people on your course and for opportunities to share about Jesus with them this term.
Taking it further
- Why Art Matters, Alistair Gordon
- Art and Faith, Makoto Fujimura
- Art and the Bible, Francis Schaeffer
- Redeeming Vision, Elissa Yukiko WeichbrodtWebsites:
- https://www.artway.eu/
- https://artsnetwork.uk/
- https://www.morphearts.org/
