Why I create Art.

Photo credit Fotoworkshop4You

I had some ask me once, after showing her a new art piece, what I was going to DO with it. She admired it but wondered what the point was. No one had paid me to do it, I had posted it on social media but it might not ever be printed . . .

It was a valid question. Photo artistry can take a considerable amount to time to create, so shouldn't there be a concrete purpose to it?? I mean, what is the point in creating one piece after another just because . . .

I thought about this for quite a long time, looking for a good answer. The only one I had at the time is because I loved doing it. It satisfied me in a way I couldn't explain.

Then one evening, while driving home, I looked up. I mean really looked up, and saw the most glorious colours staining the sky, wrapping around the clouds as the sun sank in the west.

And that's when I knew. God creates beauty around us everyday, if we stop to look for it. How many people saw the colours I saw, the subtle variations flowing from one cloud to the next? Not many I'm sure. We are always so busy with our phones, our devices, our troubles. Who has time to stop and look?

But God makes beautiful things new everyday, whether we see them or not.

²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Luke 12:27 (NKJV)

 Philippians 4:8 is one of my favourite verses . . .

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 

I suppose, in the end, that's what creating art is for me. Thinking about things that are lovely, admirable, excellent and so on and creating, in my very small way, something that hopefully reflects those things.

Getting published, selling prints, creating artwork for people, I would love to be able to do all of those things, but even if if none of it happened, making art, for art's sake, is enough. 

 “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
~Pablo Picasso~