Why is the term Christian Art shunned even by Christian artists? I see this frequently, usually among well established artists who don’t want to be labeled by a specific genre. Fair enough, but I think there is more to it than that.
The term Christian Art is avoided even by Christian artists because they don’t want to be associated with art that is… well… just plain bad. By bad I mean amateurish, poorly conceived, poorly executed, preachy, and not beautiful. There is a lot of it out there.
From paintings to music to films the thinking seems to be that the message is so important that the shoddiness of the delivery will be excused. Yeah, not so much. While God may bless the artist for their efforts and the angels sing their praises, if the art is not of a quality that people want to see or hear, then the artist has not done his or her job of spreading the Gospel message.
We are all given gifts by God, creativity is among those gifts. Those blessed with an abundance of creativity, and find a vocation in beauty, frequently employ those gifts through painting, writing, acting, singing, and so on. But the gift is just the beginning. An artist who takes seriously the mission to spread the Gospel must do so in a way that makes people receptive to the message.
This takes effort. This takes work. Artists must take the gifts they have been given and develop them. Learn your craft, develop your skills, take classes, get a mentor or a teacher, make your work as beautiful as you are possibly capable of, then push yourself to make it better.
Think of it this way. Suppose you had a particular gift for color and design and you expressed those gifts by weaving textiles. One day someone presents you with a gift of a box containing hundreds of balls of yarn of every color imaginable. Would you proudly show off the yarn to everyone and leave it at that? “Look at all the beautiful yarn!”
Knowing what you could do with the yarn the giver of the gift would probably be disappointed if that’s all you did. Or, would you take the yarn, employ all your skill and experience, and weave it into a beautiful tapestry that not only pleased the giver of the gift but also drew people to gaze on the beauty of the world through the art you created?
This is not about pleasing people rather than pleasing God. This is about showing your appreciation for the gifts you have been given by using them to draw others to God through your art. You do this by using your gifts to create beauty, epiphanies (revelations) of the divine. This is not to say that every work of art must be a masterpiece that transcends taste and fashion, but it must be competent enough that people do not turn away from it, it must be captivating enough for people to perceive the Truth behind the art.
We probably should refrain from using the term “Christian Art” because it doesn’t really mean anything and has such a negative perception in the public arena. Any artist who is serious about both his Christian faith and his vocation as an artist, will produce Christian art, whether it is a portrait, a landscape, an icon, or a song that climbs the popular music charts.
It has been said that your talent is God’s gift to you, what you do with it is your gift to God. Make your gift as beautiful as possible.