From an article i’m working on about art:

There is this implied transcendence with art. It makes you aware there is more than meets the eye to everything. That’s part of its role, to suggest that there is more around us than is literal, or merely utilitarian—to remind us everything is also resting inside a poem. That taking out the trash can be prayer. (And prayer is itself a similar activity to art).

A thing or simple activity is more than itself. Art reminds us that. Or, as the comedians reminds us a pocket comb is also a plow for farming, in the right hands and imagination. Seeing the possible layers of meaning of each thing is part of what art sharpens in us. In this sense, it offers a fuller interpretation of the world around us. That’s another part of its role.

To know there is an enormous room everything is in, brings hope that in fact, this is not all there is. And these days, if this is all there is, we are in trouble! So if the surface is depressing, we probe beneath it to find more layers, and that brings hope. Making art is an act of hope, especially in times of tumult.

In this sense, art does more than ritualize collective grief (which is does and needs to be doing), but it offers hope by showing us the larger setting of the play, and therefore other possible outcomes.

Art also implies transcendence, or as Paul Tillich put it: “A symbol participates in The Reality to which it points.” Art offers a portal or gateway into something higher.

The act of art also, models trust there is something to hold me, once i let go, as L’Engle (“Walking on Water”) put it: “To be an artist means to approach the light, and that means to let go our control, to allow our whole selves to be placed with absolute faith in that which is greater than we are.” That vulnerable tight rope act, models hope for others, and that artist becomes a living sign.

Lastly, art is a basic part of being human. We lose a dynamic part of being human if our lives are artless, if we do not dare collaborate with God. Again, as L’Engle puts it, and I’ll end here: “Thus we lose our human calling, because we do not dare to be creators, co-creators with God.” (Reflections on faith and art)