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he first thing your eyes saw as you entered the art department was a poster, which read “Who is this fellow, Art?” It seemed appropriate for me as I entered my freshman year of college in 1978 searching for “art”. But who/what exactly is art? Simply put, it is communication. An artist is merely someone using a particular medium to get their message across. As a college freshman I stereotypically named painting, drawing, photography or sculpture as “art.” However, the truth is that we find art all around us. God’s creation communicates His love for us by providing color-rich sunsets, a stylishly designed automobile, or even a well-crafted sermon by your pastor! As Christians, we enjoy a long history of art. Art that was created for the expressed purpose of communicating God’s message of salvation to us.The Lord created the rainbow as a promise to us that He would never again flood the earth as He did in Noah’s time (a masterpiece we can still view today). With His own hand He wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets for Moses to deliver to His chosen peoBy Steve Blakey ple. David, inspired by the Lord, wrote the Psalms and planned the building of the temple (which his son Solomon would later construct as foretold by God). Some of the earliest depictions of Christ would be foreign to us today, as He was generally shown as a young, beardless man. Reformation-era Christians foreshadowed modern publishing with their ability to massproduce illustrated theological tracts using woodcuts and the printing press (www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/engravings/). There’s an important element in artistic communication I refer to as the “ah ha” factor. You most often see it when an advertiser is hoping to make their product memorable, so you will go out and buy it. Remember the Gatorade TV commercials where the athletes are dripping colored sweat? The voiceover does not say,“These people have been drinking Gatorade and its different colors will come out when you sweat them out.” All you see and hear at the closing is “Gatorade... Is It In You?” and you mentally say to yourself,“Ah-ha, I get it.”When the consumer “gets it,” they tend to remember the product because they felt they were in on something. The same is true for good liturgical or Christian art. If executed well, it should contain an element of the “ah-ha” factor. You’ve seen those bumper stickers where the ichthys with little feet formed the word Darwin, and they are followed by another bumper sticker showing a (smaller) Darwin ichthys being swallowed by a larger TRUTH ichthys? That is a great example of the “ah-ha” factor at work. Lutheran liturgy is filled with rich examples of multiple (mixed) media pulled together to communicate God’s message of salvation.Take the order of Holy Baptism on page 199 in Lutheran Worship.The main elements (media) involved are God-given (Word and the water). It generally takes place within a church (architecture), with a font (sculpture), vestments, a white garment for the baptized (textiles) and a baptismal candle, which usually has a symbol on it depicting the Holy Spirit (illustration).This is no masterpiece housed in a museum. It’s a living, ongoing work. Amazingly, we are privileged to collectively recite the Lord’s Prayer (another God-given element), while witnessing Christ (through the pastor and congregation) expand His church on earth (interactive presentation). As mentioned, an artist is someone who is trying to communicate something to his/her audience, and usually is the one who chooses how to solve this issue. Depending on how well the artist knows their subject, coupled with their creative ability and knowledge of the audience, will determine how successful their efforts are. Steve Blakey is a member of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN and is Art Director for Higher Things magazine.
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