Spiritual Formation and Making Art

I've grown a lot more self-conscious about this blog and its place on the church web site, especially since the church's creative writers group is currently out of commission. A little tune from Sesame Street often comes into my head: "One of these blogs is not like the others....one of these blogs just doesn't belong..."

Ultimately, the blog may not belong on this site. But I have deeply appreciated how the church has taken some rather unconventional steps to embrace and encourage the arts, including creative writing. I know there are many beautiful reasons for this, including a core belief that God delights in the creativity and self-expression of his children. I also think the church believes that the making of art is another path, another spiritual discipline that God often uses in the formation of our souls.

I thought a lot about how creative writing can lead us a bit towards the Kingdom of God while I was preparing to teach in the Arts Camp this summer. I'd like to share some of those thoughts here.

Usually, I hate to articulate the purposes and usefulness of a thing. This is simply because of some badly formed areas in me that tend to be rather uninterested in things that are "good for me," or come with some other kind of claim. Also, I feel like I barely have a grasp on what spiritual formation means, and so trying to say anything meaningful on this topic just seems riduculously presumptive. Please read what I say with this in mind. Most of all, I believe we write or make any other art because we want to. I also believe we pray because we want to. And we love others for the same reason. But I might be wrong about all that. Anyway, like I said, this blog might not belong. But here are my fairly rough thoughts. They are all quite related, and may be restating one another again and again. Do you have anything to add (or subtract)?

1) Creative Writing (and other art making) puts us in touch with our Self. I have most learned this from the poet William Stafford, and I intend to write more about him later. But I think this is a major gift of art making. I am tending toward a belief that real art is only made by free selves. Not for any secondary purpose but to express a self. It is a place to acknowledge the fact of our existence as a self that God has chosen for his universe of existence.

2) It also puts us in touch with the moment, with the Now. That's where poetry and other art comes from. And this is also, I've been told, where God meets us.

3) As we make art, we become more attentive to the world God has made, to ourselves, to others, and hopefully, through all of this attentiveness, to the eternal God himself. I think we start with how we see the world and this moment around us. That is enough work to last me for the rest of my life, I believe.

4) Making art allows us to live in wonder. When we let ourselves be surprised, astonished, delighted or appalled by the real, I think perhaps we let ourselves get a little closer to listening to God. (maybe I'm wrong).

5) I have found that for all of the reasons I've listed above, and more, making art has drawn me into a deeper connection with other people. I can see more of the beauty of their stories and of their selves. Writing has become another way for me to attend to others, which is one small way to love.

6) Perhaps I could say that making art also makes me a little more discerning about what is true and what is beautiful and lovely.

I think there must be other ways that making art and creative writing in particular can be a gracious tool in our spiritual formation. Do you have anything to add?

I also suppose that there are some pitfalls, some sins and blindspots that art making could encourage. Maybe I'll think about that and do another blog.

Regardless, it would be a pleasure to hear from any other artists about what you have discovered about the intersection of art and spiritual formation.

---Jenny Jiang