LIVING ART: Pleasure or Profit?

 There are some questions that we really can't get the best answer to until we get to meet with the creator. One of those questions for me will be "What transpired in the heart of God between Genesis 1:25 & 26?"  What exactly was God thinking? Everything He had created was recorded to be good. Also, He most certainly had the power to automate the world He had created, after all, Genesis 2: 4-6 tells us He already created a system to sustain the garden with or without the effort of the man He created. This therefore leads us to a very important question "why did God create man, more  specifically why did God create you?' More generically, why do people/artist create?

When I think art, the first name that comes to mind is Vicky Ed' Splendor. Vicky Ed is one of my choicest friend, she is a pencil artist and has done so many mind blowing expression of art with just pencils(charcoal like she loves to call it) and paper. You can look up some of her works on Facebook. To address the question before us today, I had a session with her, more on my discussion with her in future episodes. I simply asked, "Why do you draw?" Two words were used by her to describe why creating an art work means so much to her "Purpose and Passion". For her, drawing is more of 70% purpose while passion feeds on purpose to have a 30% amazingly, profit was no where in the picture even though it stands out as very important. Now, before I asked this question, I shared a short story with her about a young woman who started a beancake business because she wanted to make money, she was doing amazingly well making her money legitimately. One faithful day, an anonymous client who was evidently out of his mind placed a mind blowing order, that single order was worth 5 years of her daily profit. She immediately got to work, putting in extra effort to make sure the client is happy and hopefully patronize her in the nearest future. Don't forget she is primarily in business to make money and amazingly, this client had paid upfront. When the package was ready, she called her client to come pick up his order which had been prepared with utmost care and love. To her greatest dismay and at the same time her greatest advantage, the client came for us order and in her very presence, poured everything she had made into the gutter, laughing hysterically, saying to himself "I want people to know that I have made money, I can do whatever I want, it's my money. All of a sudden, her best deal and turned out to be the worst of deals. True, she had gotten the money she wanted but only now had she realized what she needed "a sense of purpose". Knowing that a created piece would make a difference in somebody else's life. This gives us a hint of what runs through the mind of an artist consciously or unconsciously. Every artist creates for a purpose, either said or unsaid. 

Why will God create, for profit? Come to think of it, what will God ever need from man that He doesn't already have? The much celebrated Praise that God can't give to Himself, He has a standby workforce that see to it every passing second of the day. So why will God create you, is it because He wants you to bring profit or to bring pleasure?

From my conversation with Vicky, one thing was evident, creation is both an act/art of sharing who you are. An artwork is an extension of an artist. An artist shares a part of himself with everything he or she creates. An artwork is the art of giving life to everything that may go unsaid relying on words alone. With this in mind, it becomes evident why God wanted to create you in His image and likeness, He simply wanted to share who He is with you. This therefore means that, you are God's extension.  There's is something that makes God God in you. You are an expression of the hidden thoughts of God. 

Also, every artwork is a message, this is why with little or no explanation it is often easy to comprehend what an artist is trying to communicate with his art work. Every artist creates to make a statement, to pass a message. in the same vein, God intended to pass a particular kind of message to the world and His way of going about it was creating you. You are a message from God to the world. The greatest form of giving is giving yourself up, for someone else's good. God gave up Himself so that He could have you. This is your Truth.

Conclusively, no two artworks can pass the same message. I asked Vicky "which of your artwork is your best art so far? To my greatest amazement, she couldn't mention any as she said "I don't have a favorite, every drawing is unique in it's own way". Immediately scriptures on how there is no favoritism with God flooded my mind Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11 & Ephesians 6:9. To an artist no work is their favorite, every artwork passes it's own message. True, some art work require more skill and time but this extra effort is only necessary because of the message. You are unique and so is your message. If you ever doubt your uniqueness, spend time with your fingerprints. Your uniqueness is for his pleasure, don't blow it. 

To be continued.....