RECLAIMING THE ARTISTIC TEMPERAMENT FOR CHRIST

I found very helpful this section of Rory Noland's The Heart of Artist (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999) to be helpful in summarizing positively the difference in the artistic temperament. Noland writes the following (pp. 17-18):

RECLAIMING THE ARTISTIC TEMPERAMENT FOR CHRIST

I believe that God has redeemed the artistic temperament. If you're in Christ, you are a new creature. "The old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor. 5:17). In Christ there is such a thing as a transformed, well-adjusted, Spirit-filled artist. Imagine what God could do with an artistic temperament that's completely yielded to Him. He doesn't look at us as "those strange artsy types." After all, he made us. He loves us and He understands us.

I'll admit we are a little different, but it's a good kind of different. Artists look at things differently than nonartists do. We notice detail; we appreciate nuance and beauty. Some people might look at the evening sky and all they see is a bunch of stars. But an artist looks at it and sees beauty and meaning. Artists want to sit under the stars and soak it all in. They want to gaze at the moon and be dazzled. They want to paint a picture of it or write a song or a poem. Debussy was so moved by the evening sky that he wrote Clair de Lune. Van Gogh was inspired and painted strong,Starry Night. King David was an artist who looked at the evening sky and wrote this: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" (Ps. 8:3-4).

Artists respond differently to things than nonartists do. For one thing, we tend to be more sensitive. And that's okay. That's how God made us. In Ephesians Paul talks about us having the eyes of our hearts enlightened (1:18). Sensitive people have a lot of heart. We might see things differently because we feel deeply. In Windows of the SoulKen Gire writes, "We learn from the artists, from those who work in paint or words, or musical notes, from those who have eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that feel deeply and passionately about all that is sacred and dear to God."

For this reason, artists very often speak out against injustice, inequality, and hypocrisy. They take up the cause of those who are suffering. They make us more sensitive to the lost and lonely and to the plight of the downtrodden. Everyone with an artistic temperament has been told at some point in his or her life to develop a thicker skin. That's nonsense! The world doesn't need more thick-skinned people. It needs more people who are sensitive and tender. Have you ever been moved to tears by a powerful piece of music or held spellbound by a beautiful work of art? Have you ever been moved by a scene from a film? It's because an artist felt deeply about something and communicated it such a powerful way that your heart and soul were touched.