Living Art

Art. What does that word bring to your mind? Surely you see more than colors splashed
onto a canvas or hear more than correct notes sung on correct pitches. What quality distinguishes
merely good art from timeless masterpieces?
The difference between good and great is Life.
Without the vibrant current of life in a song, the melody may be pleasant or even
exciting, but the music is dead. One can craft a song into perfect phrases and practice it until the
outcome is certain. And then the music is contained, safe, in its coffin until the lid is opened to
view porcelain perfection.
Where is the dancing, living quality in the thread of tone? Where is the dangerous
uncertainty of what turn music may take when humans stop controlling art and allow it to take
shape in the moment? When art is definite and repeatable, it has been slain. True art is
unpredictableand that unpredictability requires the artist to abandon control.
What about classical art, such as paintings? How does one see life in photography? The
quality of Life in a painting or photograph is light. The way lighting illumines its subject gives
still art depth and soul-stirring beauty. Black and white photography is striking largely because of
the obvious shift from light to blackness. What does it take to create pure darkness? Nothing.
Darkness does not move; it is deadness inhabiting space. Light moves at breathtaking speed,
scattering darkness and revealing the beauty of color and shape around us. That is why I propose
that the way light is portrayed in photography or paintings reveals Life.
Living art reaches past pleasing beauty into a soul-grip. Life flows from soul to soul, not
from controlled craft to consumer. The quality of Life is illusive and beautifully arresting
precisely because mankind cannot create Life. God is the Giver of Life; He is Life. Great art
reflects the reality of the wondrous God Who is greater than man.