The challenge posed by the blank page as it stares at me, daring me to pollute its clear, ordered, lined surface. It sits in scorn of my feeble attempts to create new order, thought, or meaning in messy black scrawls. I feel inept and unfit for the task.
To my hope and chagrin, I have a community of friends who have taken up the same challenge, and they will push and drag me till I decide to soldier on. And I am further pushed by the call to create.
This new understanding of creation comes from a book I recently read and I offer you this tidbit below.
The author reflects on "An Artist in His Studio" and he muses, "I have come to see [the Artist] not primarily as a portrait of a person but of a posture. The artist steps back from his work. His weight is on his back foot--he is contemplating, waiting, watching. But the brush is already in his hand. he will soon step forward to the canvas that looms before him with all its possibility and danger. He contemplates in order to act. he is still in order to move. He is alone in order to offer something to others. He is small and humble, recognizing that what he is creating is in some sense more lasting and of greater import than himself. But he is also dignified by this moment of waiting and watching. The painting depends on him, on his willingness to risk being a creator."That is the challenge of the blank page... to risk being a creator. To take the God-given experiences, stories, insights, knowledge, and make something new.
Perhaps in creation... the ephemeral nature of truth is concretized for a moment, and I will be given the grace to see God.
3 comments:
wewww, it's true. I like that author...
i've been kinda dreaming/visioning today about things i want to accomplish as well. so it's helpful to hear you write about something that's kinda related to what's in my head.
i'll keep thinking about this stuff...
thanks for the post. keep writing posts about good books you read. saves me the trouble of reading them myself. :p
I don't know if this is in line with what you're talking about, but I have felt the weight of an artist as I have started blogging again. It's one thing for me to have thoughts and opinions; it's quite another to post them online for everyone to see and scrutinize. But what is art if it's not going to be appreciated? Likewise what are thought and opinions if they are not expressed?
Dang, that sounds really deep. Maybe whenever someone writes about art it sounds deep, even if they want it to sound trite. :P Maybe not!
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