actual vs. potential

It can be nerve racking to be around artists. To render well, they see every pore; every unplucked eyebrow; every sag; every wrinkle. An artist sees brutal reality and records it. Picasso the novice.

But there's another side to artists--the perspective of the visionary. The need to embellish, update, clarify, distort, and perfect. To render things not as they are, but as the artist sees them. Picasso the cubist.

The Master Artist sees beyond pores, eyebrows, sags, and wrinkles to my anxiety, fatigue, blind spots, error, mess, conflict, darkness. He also sees who I will be: beautiful, released, growing, trusting, new, different, bright. HOPE.

May I be the kind of artist who, seeing the flaws, emphasizes the beauty.

Picasso mommy

...have found several very old friends from school days who are blossoming in their artistic talents--edgy, raw, gaspingly artistic people. I admit it is making me feel fairly boring. My boys need the structure and stability of a clean house, family dinners, hugs and snuggles, a happy Mommy. And I love giving that to them and relating to other moms in the same stage of life. Being their mommy and feeling their warm little arms around my neck and their sweet breath on my cheek is indescribably beautiful, and I embrace it with my whole self. But what do I do with my artist that is sprawling parched in the dust right now? I worry about her sometimes--that she'll expire before I have a chance to feed her; that I'll be so old by the time I get to her that she won't recognize me anymore. And I feel all stirred up inside when I see the blogs and portfolios of my friends...as if I not only have something to say, but something to prove. I often feel like a Picasso with the cognitive dissonance of "soccer mom," "raw artist," and "Christ follower" all sprawling in one distorted view with all their angles rubbing each other raw...and yet when you step back and see the whole, it makes sense.

Art & creativity

"A Christian, above all people, should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively. ...If we have been created in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for our appreciation."

--source unknown