God Is An Artist

[TheUbiquitous]

Is God an artist and the Church a self-portrait, a portrait in selves? 

Does successful art break down the mortal artist so that immortal truth shines through? 

 

Other thoughts along these lines. 

[John Ryan]

I always thought of Christ as God's self-portrait.

[Luigi]

You're gonna have to define art, and the artist's role(s). 

 

If the artist draws beauty out of ugliness, then God is an artist. (And in my opinion, ONLY God can that - others who do it are simply collaborating with God.)

 

If the artist makes meaning from human experience, then God is an artist. (And God makes more meaning - full meaning - from-of-with human experience.)

 

If the artist is a problem-solver (in terms of content, materials, whatever else), then God is an artist. 

 

 

You no doubt catch my drift by now. 

 

 

 

It's your question, so it's also your clarification. 

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Christianity and life in general is many pieces of broken pottery, and over time God is putting together a mosaic, and we won't see the finished product until he has finished. :) And it's a really big mosaic for the entirety of Gods plan so you can only see it clearly from a great height/heaven. So yes i think God is an Artist.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye

[Catherine Therese]

I like the broken pottery motif... it makes me think of the story of the potter's wheel in Jeremiah. It is the Potter's prerogative to start again and recast the work if He sees fit (Noah and the Great Flood, much?) The Potter is ever-creative, and although through the sin of our first parents we allowed an aspect of creation (God's original masterpiece) to be broken, this idea of recreating us into a mosaic and bringing beauty from ugliness is very encouraging. All of this happens(ed) in the eternal now, for God, of course, but we certainly experience the unfolding of his single, simple action over time. 

The analogy of the self-portrait is a little trickier, as far as I can see. To say that Christ is the self-portrait of the Father seems to suggest that He is less than the Father, for a self-portrait is only an impression of the original character and bears no equality. Because we know: 1) that Christ is co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit; and 2) that the human person is created in the image and likeness of God, I'd hazard to conclude that it is WE who are the self-portrait. We don't have that equality with the Creator, but in us we find the vestige of the original Artist. 

Just some thoughts to consider this prayerful brainstorm :)

 

Finally, in the same way that, whilst God is pure being and we only participate in His being, may I suggest that God is THE Artist, par excellence, and those who express themselves by way of art are artists by virtue of participation in God's own Divine Artistic Streak :)

[Selah]

You're gonna have to define art, and the artist's role(s). 

 

If the artist draws beauty out of ugliness, then God is an artist. (And in my opinion, ONLY God can that - others who do it are simply collaborating with God.)

 

If the artist makes meaning from human experience, then God is an artist. (And God makes more meaning - full meaning - from-of-with human experience.)

 

If the artist is a problem-solver (in terms of content, materials, whatever else), then God is an artist. 

 

 

You no doubt catch my drift by now. 

 

 

 

It's your question, so it's also your clarification. 

 

...I think you are overanalyzing something that's not meant to be.

[Luigi]

...I think you are overanalyzing something that's not meant to be.

 

It's entirely possible. It wouldn't be the first time, and I doubt that it will be the last.

[Selah]

It's all good.

[AccountDeleted]

I guess because I am not an artist, I see God as more of an author. He is writing this beautiful story and we are all characters in it. He has even written Himself into it over and over again in so many ways, and whenever He appears, the story just seems so much more beautiful! :love: