Sunday May 15

May 15 – Art Saves the World

Genesis 6:14-20

Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive.

My connection between the scripture and this week’s theme is pretty direct: Noah was an artist. He built the ark. There were some instructions from God, but not blueprints. Because Noah responded to this (granted, rather dire) inspiration, the world was saved. I believe that again and again art and creativity saves the world. It hallows the most precious things, it offers new vision. Like the cellist of Sarajevo (whom I highlighted a few weeks back), who played music in the very midst of war, art reminds us that life is about m0ore than destruction, greed, or hatred.

                When we create, when we respond to God’s invitation to co-create we save the world one piece of art at a time. Art is not just decoration; it is resuscitation, rejuvenation, resurrection.

Good News: Even in an awful story about an angry God, there is the promise of life.

Subject: We humans participate in the salvation of ourselves and others, and it is a creative endeavor.

Experiential Field: We experience the precious gift of life when we create.

Heather M shared some interesting inspiration for this week:

Okay - I have some ideas.  I am a secret Fine Arts minor and took a life-changing feminist art history course, so IMHO, you can't talk about ART, without mentioning the guerrilla girls.  Basically, its a band of renegade art feminist (Judy Chicago is rumored) http://www.guerrillagirls.com/ who protest the fact that the art world is very sexist and many women artists are just not displayed in museums, textbooks, or galleries.  

May 15   Art Saves the World           Genesis 6:11-22

So when I read "how art can save the world", well how CAN art save the world when art is a reflection of society and a big fat mirror of sexism lies in our precious art world!!

Heather’s question applies to the bible as well. How can texts so dominated by patriarchy and male politics (both when they were written and how they have been applied ever since) convey for us the “still-speaking God”? I think the miracle therein is that does show up, and speak and transform us but we have certainly made it more difficult because of our human accretions. So, too, art is human and often as flawed as the humans who make it and display it. So, too, the Creative Spirit can break through in any gallery, studio, or street corner.

The forms we choose, including the words we select can either convey or inhibit the Spirit. Here is a video that highlights how our choice of craft can realign our world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU

I really like where we went for Mother’s day last week, but I want to keep before us one of my major intentions for this series: to give those in attendance an opportunity to participate in creation of something. What kinds of creativity can we invite them into?

I have an update regarding some of the artists who can/may/will participate:

·         Jack Evans is available next week (May 22) to share about haiku writing.

·         My friend Ted Lyddon Hatten is willing to join us via Skype to talk about his socially conscious sculpture.

·         I had an interesting conversation with Chris Brown about the Rise project that he and 2 friends are undertaking: a cross-country bike ride to raise awareness of suicide. Chris is a film-maker and one of the other partners is a photographer, but they see this whole endeavor as a work of art and passion (http://risephoenix.org/).

I also know we discussed have vocalists from a variety of genres, and possibly a dancer as well. As of this week (May 15) we are one month out from our SCUCC Art Fest.  The Spirit is moving quickly!