I recently completed a painting (sorry - still no pics for those that have been asking me on FB).
I am a rank amateur… and by rank I mean smelly… but this painting was a first for me. It’s the first one I’ve done that engages me beyond the fact that I did it. When I observe it… I forget that I did it… it doesn’t seem to equate to the sum of the processes that I put into it. When I look on it… it seems irrelevant that I did it. Whether anyone else ever appreciates it or not… I know the result has transcended me. It’s a very surreal feeling and is raising questions in me about what part artistic endeavour plays in my future… and what part artistic endeavour plays in general in culture… and in the Kingdom.
It’s also put a longing in me for my manifest presence on this planet in this time to transcend the sum total of it’s inputs (my efforts, external influences, etc.). I’m wondering if God is in the remainder after all those inputs have been divided out? If it’s the difference… that transcendant part that’s still left over… that the inputs can’t account for…. that shines, draws, points to the new Kingdom. Indeed, maybe it’s only in that extra that the kingdom is actually felt and tasted and foreshadowed.
I want people to sense this same K-factor quality in my life as a Christ follower, that I sense as an x-factor in this painting.
nooc
