Community

Hello!

Good to be here... it's been too long.

Thank you for allowing me to pop in and out of your world at times. I wish it could be more consistent but that isn't my life right now. Thank you for allowing me this indulgence.

 I am so happy to be doing what I love to do and that is creating.

I am so happy to be able to get up each morning and walk down the path to my studio and work with my hands. I am thankful for the gift that God has given me. A gift that still needs to be honed, developed, molded, shaped and nurtured. I am not always happy with the result of the hand that holds the brush but it gives me opportunity to grow... it gives me opportunity to fail, it gives me freedom. It allows my weakness for God's strength to grow.

The source of my creativity is the overflow of my heart. It is my relationship with God, for He has my heart. 

The language of art speaks to the imagination, it speaks to that bridge inside us between the heart and mind. Imagination is what enables us to think with the heart and feel with the mind. 

God speaks to us in pictures, Jesus spoke in parabolic language... He speaks to the imagination.

 Brennan Manning said, "If God is speaking, then nothing else matters but to listen!"

A community of artists is needed to create a safe place, a Christ centered community. 

The definition of community is: cum with; moenia, (fortifications)

a place with protective walls.

The Renaissance period was the greatest period of creativity which was a result of community. Community forms respect and trust... learning from one another in a safe place. It encourages and builds up. Art should not and cannot happen in a void. Apprenticeship reminds us that creativity does not occur in a vacuum, it requires a community. Passing on experience there by art grows and develops.

Windows in this area need to be opened and let the fresh air sweep away the stale dusty attitudes of ownership and originality. The sweet air of nurturing and sharing. 

The author of Scribbling in the Sand Micheal Card, said what has been on my heart for so long now.

Remember that only God can imagine and make something out of nothing. In this sense, he is the only one who deserves the title Creator. 

We are merely creative. That is we can only imagine and make something out of something else... something that has already been imagined and made, whether in the creation itself or from the work of creative people.

Not one person... I don't care how talented they are has an original thought or piece of art. Somewhere along the way you were influenced by someone! 

This means, I do not consider my work as much original as individual...

Your work will always be out of what you have somehow come across and into what others will eventually come across.

 The best artists begin by being influenced and end up influencing. 

Yes, I am saying borrow art...and grow from the borrowing. If you find an idea here... borrow it!  It is not mine to clutch and hold tightly to anyway...

I am challenging us to embrace "Community" the school of thought, to be a limitless person to others.

Community calls creativity forth. The need for kindness, beauty, and truth all cry out for the creative fingerprints in each of us with various creative gifts...

 To edify, instead of tear down, to influence instead of accuse, to nurture instead of exclude... and just maybe we will stretch others more than our art...

Blessings,

Rebecca