Art as Prayerful Meditation #1

Once upon a time, I was an art major. It was one of the happiest times of my life, in fact…one of the most freeing and liberating. I’ve been an artist, of a sort, since I could hold a pencil or crayon, but in high school I stumbled into an art class and really began to explore my gift. As I entered university, the graphic design degree I wanted was rolled into Studio Art, so I found myself spending long hours in the studio drawing a still life here, doing a negative space painting there. Staring at piles of crap that my professor had stacked up and put under dramatic lighting for seven or eight hours at a time.

Beyond the art, what I found was artistic, or creative, flow. After much Googling this seems to be the term attached to what I like to think of as “getting lost in” the art. It’s the hardest thing to describe what creative flow is or what it feels like. If you’ve ever enjoyed something so much that you completely lose cognizance of yourself and time, then you’re pretty darn close.

For me, creative flow, is losing cognizance of myself and time, but it’s also like riding on a wave of something that is distinct from me. That’s where God comes in. There’s a special combo of things…situational variables…that seem to open up a conduit in my brain and take me straight into creative flow. In fact, there are three specific activities that jettison me into that place: making art, writing, and running.

As I’m writing this, I’m having a big A-HA moment that I should really wise up and make these things the cornerstone of my life. So hey! You were here for that!

I’m also realizing that examining creative flow and art as prayer and meditation are going to take a significant amount of time to flesh out, so if you’ll bear with me, this will be the introduction to a series of posts on tapping into creativity and a conversation with God.

Are you ready?

5 thoughts on “Art as Prayerful Meditation #1

    1. HAAAA! You’re too good to me.

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  1. Yeah, I’m here for this. This is totally relevant to my interests/current headspace right now.

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    1. I’m so glad! I’m still all, “Is this going to resonate with anyone?” every time I write here. šŸ˜€

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  2. Being free to be me is hard at times, but when I write, I know immediately what I will write about. It flows, where in the past my thoughts didn’t flow. I believe God has everything to do with life, and abundant thoughts. I believe He made us to turn to Him in worship. It isn’t being passive that sets the path for those who draw close. We come close, and He draws near. I was born shy, and full of fears, but these have gone without my noticing. They left sometime, and I am freer to be me. Thank God. My prison crashed, and I walked out into the sunshine. I won’t go back to that life. God is real, and He does exist.

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