The God-People-Art/Artist Triangle

I was talking with Wade Williams yesterday on our back from Birmingham, where we had met with Tom Saxon to talk about details concerning the Ireland trip in July. The general topic for the day was the intersection between faith and art (which touches on just about everything). One of the things I've tried to develop in the past years (at least partially) is a sense of the relationships between the artist, his art, his audience and his God, and I've come up with a sort of triangular model. (Which I can't give a diagram of here but I can at least give the idea.)

Basically the artist, as sub-creator, creates because he must. This sub-creator's creations glorify his Maker, whether or not that is his intention. (So this is the vertical relationship - communication with God, whether conscious or sub-conscious.) Then, because art does not exist within a vacuum, communities form around the artist and what ever is communicated from artist to audience (this being the horizontal relationship - communication with each other). It's basic; these are the only elements there really are to any kind of human expression, including sports, music, history, math, you name it. The key is for the artist to not lose sight of one or the other - if you love God, you'll love your neighbor; in the same way, if you are creating or performing or excelling for God, it is to be used to edify each other and tell one another truth. Don't coop yourself up with your art, either in physical reality or with regard to meaning through communication - once you lose sight of actually connecting with people and think that your art is significant in and of itself, your achievements are dead. Art for art's sake achieves nothing.

It was at this point that I made a connection I hadn't made before. In one of the meetings for our music leadership internship program (that's a mouthful) over the past year or so with North Shore, we discussed the idea of certain adherence to quality standards in a way that misses the mark. It's funny; we think that in music, whether it's a church service or a college music program, we can create something that's up to God's standards of quality, delivered on high either through classical composers or the producers of slick worship services in Nashville mega-churches. The reality is that at best, our efforts amount to a daughter's crayon drawing being proudly displayed on the fridge of her father. The point is not that you shouldn't try and do your absolute best; rather, it is that yes, God loves art, but he loves it because it is done by his children (using that term loosely here to mean the humans he created). He delights in art, and that art does not exist by itself on some mountain top, mysteriously and inexplicably existent. Art, by definition (wait, can I claim that?), is done by an artist. And it is these human artists that make angels wonder.