On art speaking for my soul

“In my studio I feel honest”

                                    -Anonymous

It’s early and no one is up yet.  I am sitting at my studio table on the back porch and listening to the birds and smelling the morning air and feeling thankful for my life.  As I sit here I am reminded of all that brought me to this quiet place of worship before God today.  I’m surrounded by memories of the things I have gone through by the things that I have created. 

Next to me is my Bible; just above it is a piece of photo art that I create that says “Rage” across the top.  Next to it is a block print of a bee that I did recently, reminding me of the buzz of the two beehives in my side yard.  On my side table sits the original framed artwork from my worship CD I did a couple of years ago.  Next to it sits a new painting that looks like I certainly must have been confused at the moment.  Below that is a piece of art that I created in the shape of Africa; constantly reminding me that there are people needing my prayers.  I could go on and on about what surrounds me this morning but I think that you get the point.  Creating for me has been a way to get what I feel out into the open.  I am thankful for this.

While I believe that art can have a message I am not much into analyzing it.  What about the messages of awe and beauty and wonder?  The art that I love and admire certainly makes those feelings come out in me.  But message or not, the truth is that creating has been a sort of release, a “let me introduce you to Don Prewitt” sort of thing.  And for this I am very grateful.

I think that artists tend to have so much to say as they see the world through different eyes that the only way they know how to express it is to create.  And I don’t think that this is just for the professional artist but the housewife, the child, the businessman and the dumpster diver.  We all want to be known from the inside out.

I am sitting here watching a bird seek the bravery to hop through my studio door, like a little child standing at the door of his first class room.  And as I watch and sit and smell and look around I wonder to myself if this is why God created the heavens and the earth and man and woman?  Was He trying to get out what was inside of Him?  Did He sit back in His studio in the clouds and say, “Hmm, that Don Prewitt over there says so much about what lies deep inside my heart”?  This morning I am glad I get to create…and I am glad that I am a created one.  I just hope that I can show people who God really is through my life, just as I want to be known through my creations also.