My theory is that the true artist produces nothing. Only a craftsperson produces, and produces regularly.
The artist works, yes, but she works first and foremost on her Soul: that is what is specific about her work and what distinguishes it from the work of a craftsperson. The work of the artist on her Soul is comparable to Grace. (In difficult times, all her energy, all her efforts are required in order to simply maintain that state of grace.) The work of an artist is an inside one, a going in, an internalization process. Actually the opposite of what is expected of her: an outpour into an objective artwork.
Art, true art, is that miracle precisely. That the artist manages at once two diametrically opposed, antinomic, actions. In that sense, yes art is a miracle akin to the Mystery of Divine Creation.
There is Incarnation. And the artist is nothing else than divine incarnated, a Presence of the eternal in a finite being, in a finite life. The artist relives, rebirthes this incarnation of the divine inside of herself. That is how she becomes a creator, in commune with all the other artists of the past: those are her riches, the infinite quality of her (and everyone's) Soul.
The miraculous process in which an artist will not internalize anymore but actually reach toward the outside and give us a kind of photocopy of her rich, divine Soul, in short an Artwork, is not a process she can control. That process is totally independent from her and she cannot choose the time or the manner in which it happens.
She has to wait.
Of course she can always produce as everyone does, as a craftsperson does but she knows and feels that these works are products and not true works of creation. They can be beautiful goods but will contribute nothing to the fulfillment of her Soul.
~the Freedom Engineer, newsletter no 6, Paris 1990
Oh my! If this doesn't remind me of my mother and give a glimpse of exactly what I was feeling when I wrote this on Monday Musings a couple of weeks ago, I don't know what does.
To me, this is just another message from God that I am on the right track in what I want to do. Thank you Zom for sharing your beautiful art and your quote on your blog. I so appreciate it! If you haven't already, please be sure you visit Pinch Me to See If You're Dreaming to see Zom's beautiful work.
That's so great when you can clearly see where God is leading you! Mostly tho, it's definitely hindsight. I've had a few of those moments looking back at how I got to a certain point in my life and saw the good and bad that led me to this point. Where God wanted me for such a time as this... cool.
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