“Knock and the Door Will Be Opened” Acrylic on Muslin © Anne C. Brink Singletary
As co-founder of the Network of Christians in Visual Arts, I have been spending a lot of my time nurturing artists and also creating the foundations for that to happen well into the future. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote to our members this month.
Creation Happens In Community
We learned in our Creator Circle Facilitator Trainings* how joy activates the relational and creative circuits in the brain. The brain is wired so that when we nurture relationships, we actually become more creative. And because we are created in the image of God, the study of our human body teaches us something about God. Creation isn’t supposed to happen in isolation, but in community.
In our first year at NCVA we’ve been living this out, as we listen to each other in Creator Circles, welcoming each individual as an Image-Bearer. At NCVA we are nurturing community through delving into neurotheology with author Amy Howey Pierson, challenging each other in attentive listening and facilitation skills in our summer training, and sharing art at our quarterly Art Shares.
The Talent of Our Humanity
Personally, at times I feel like I would like more art and less community in my life! My time is pulled by relationships with my children, my parents, my local church, my local art community, and this nationwide Network of Christians in Visual Arts! But, then I remember the words of Pope John Paul II:
“We have to admit that the greatest talent of all that we possess is the talent of our own humanity. This is also the truth of the Gospel. And if God is going to judge us on how we used our various talents, he will judge us on how we used our basic talent: the talent of our own humanity. This is the greatest talent.”
In the recently published God Is Beauty, John Paul II goes on to discuss that God himself paid the ultimate price for our humanity. He reminds us that the human person is of ultimate value. No talent or utility or “usefulness” – even the vocation of creating beauty and culture – can be placed above the value of the person him/herself.
The Art of Life
NCVA members are active in local art communities, churches, families and neighborhoods; we are listening, loving and creating with the people around us. Yes, we are called to the visual arts. But that is not all. Beyond that we are, as John Paul II wrote in his 1999 Letter to Artists, “entrusted with the task of crafting” our lives; we are to make of them, “a work of art, a masterpiece.”
So, as we just celebrated one year of NCVA last month, I want to encourage you as you create the masterpiece of your life, using even seemingly disparate aspects of yourself to create a symphony of your existence as an orchestra conductor weaves many parts into a harmonious whole.
*Creator Circles are NCVA’s core program, connecting up to eight NCVA members monthly via Zoom to support, inspire, and encourage each other.
