Let it Not Be as Artists that We Try to "outGod" each Other

I will preface all of this to say that I do believe if you work with other artists in a collaborative, purposeful effort, you should give credit to the folks you are working with where credit is due. That is just plain common courtesy. What I'm talking about below is the origin of inspiration in a creative work, and the character of the artist.  

I saw a beautiful dance photo on Facebook today. I wanted to comment on its loveliness but then started reading the previous comments that were left on it and decided to stay out of that conversation. Some of them were filled with pride, jealousy, suspicion, and ownership claims, not from the dancer girl who posted the photo and who was in it, but from some who viewed it. It was painful to read and all of the sudden the beauty of this picture and the art form and skill of the dancers became secondary and clouded. They got lost in the pride shuffle that I have found often prevails in the artistic community - Christian and otherwise - and how very sad. I love being an artist. But I don't always enjoy the community.

When I was a dance studio owner and director, I avoided dance competitions for this reason. I thought long and hard about it because it's a community effort and there could be benefits for the dancers in participating. I had viewed my daughter in the past participate in them at other dance studios and no matter how well she did as a dancer on stage, she always left feeling "less than" and that too clouded her expression, in my opinion. Bronze should have been silver, and silver should have been gold. And gold was just, who cares, gold. Sharing dance in my opinion is one thing. It's a powerful and beautiful way to share a message and an expression. Competing is another especially when there are no set, concrete, objective game rules. For dancers, I have found, it can be really difficult because the "canvas" is a human being with a mind and emotions. And oftentimes, this canvas may be a vulnerable young lady on the cusp of womanhood battling all kinds of negative body image stereotypes and insecurities as young girls often do and here she is putting herself out there in front of the lions because she has something to express. A kind word would really go a long way in a situation like this, not "Hey that was my idea. You stole my idea." or "Gosh did you see her feet? UGLY." You get the point. And who wants to sign up for that? It's one thing to share your art and your story and pack up and leave and hope your audience learned something or was inspired, but it's another thing to sit and wait for your medal and or no medal from the judges who just scrutinized you AND do all this in front of your audience.  I suppose if we could keep in balance and check our true hearts in participating -- to share, to have fellowship with other artists, to learn, to inspire, fine - but can we all really do that? All 30 of us in our group? Those were the questions I asked myself, and hence we never made it to the competitions.

So what's with the jealousy? The competition? The pride? The suspicion? Rory Noland, author of Heart of the Artist, wrote an entire book and offers workshops on this subject helping artists who serve in the Christian community and ministry to find a balance of true humility and dealing with character issues creative types often contend with by way of being born sensitive.

So much of my art expresses my faith, so this is how I view my calling and purpose. God is the creator and everything originates from Him. There is nothing under the sun that He did not create. So I am just duplicating back to the world what He has already done. If I am dancing and pretending to be a bird perhaps, who gets the glory? The One who made the bird ultimately and the One who made my body and created its capability to move. Likewise, if I am photographing a glorious sunset, who gets the glory? The One who made the sunset. Likewise, I didn't create "sound" for music, nor did I create the endless rainbow of color. Perhaps there is genius and skill and hard work in my approach, but I always think about the true origin of my art. My work deserves appreciation, but not worship.

In viewing my art through my faith then there is no room for pride, jealousy or competition because what I would be attempting to do as an artist then is to "outGod" others and as the word warns, pride comes before the fall. Our jobs as writers, photographers, dancers, painters or musicians is to take truth and origin, and put it back into order for the world to learn or be inspired. That's a privilege. That's cause for appreciation. The dance, the music, the song, the painting, the words - they are all very effective and powerful ways to share our experiences, our wisdom and our perspectives on life, but being called and skilled to do so is not a reason to hyper-inflate our egos. A famous artist with whom I worked once said to me that people eat out of the palm of his hand through his music, and he was proud of this fact. He mentioned this between cutting remarks he made of other people's music. It made my stomach churn to hear such words. More soul searching as to the "why" we do, what we do. True art requires humility and a losing of oneself through the process, all of this being the opposite of ego. To be transparent to our audiences -- even if it is just an audience of one - is to be generous and sacrificial and to be a giver of something unique often birthed through great wells of effort and pain. But it should never be a celebrated form of manipulating others. 

So to the dancer in the Facebook photo I saw this morning....Beautiful. Clap hands. Cheer. Lovely. I noticed it and I was moved by it's beauty and grace. I'm sure you worked very hard on the piece. You did a great job. I appreciate your work. And I appreciate all of those who have gone before you in inspiration.

"Creativity takes courage" was what the French artist Henri Matisse said. It's not easy to get up there and out there with our expressions. It does take a lot of courage. Likewise, it takes courage and integrity to stand up there on behalf of other artists and applaud and genuinely support their efforts.

I will end to say that at my daughter's last show "Snow White" some fellow dancers/artists from several other dance groups attended to support her and appreciate her expression. Their presence meant the world to her and as a mom, it meant the world to me. And there were no secret motives. They weren't there to suspiciously "check out" her stuff, or to secretly mock her existence or to gain more ground for themselves. They weren't there to watch and then go back home and gossip and criticize and demean what they saw. Their hearts were pure. (Yes, I've seen all of the above-mentioned audience motivation factors over the years.)  They were there to support and encourage and appreciate her efforts either way, whether it was a fantastic show or a bust. These are the people I want to keep close to and to align my heart and my purpose with.

These are the people I aspire to be like, with God as my ultimate leader. We would all do well in the artistic community to do the same.