Part of what I want to do with this blog is promote Christians who answer the call to create, and so this series features various Christians who tell us, in their own words, how their faith molds and inspires their creative process.

If you are a Christian who is a musician, writer, artist, photographer, inventor, engineer, architect, etc. who loves to spread the gospel and glorify God in their work, please consider telling us about it by contributing a Creative Christian post. Contact me at matt [at] newlibertycreation dot com.

Today’s post is from Kristarella.
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Before Matt asked me if I would write this post I had not thought a great deal about how my faith in Jesus and my passion for creativity interact. Now that I have thought about it, I realise that in my school days I did consciously think about the messages I was trying to send; perhaps because you’re forced to think about that in school. Since then, my beliefs and my art interact on a more basic level. God’s spirit is with us and and a part of us always, doing his sanctifying (making pure and blameless - yes that’s right Christians aren’t perfect yet!) work.

Art, music and a passion to create are also part of me. These things (Spirit and creativity) work intrinsically together, sometimes obviously, sometimes subtly and sometimes in a way that might be no different from anyone else. We are all creations of God and we all contain some of the wisdom and beauty that is woven by him into creation.
High School was the time that my love for music and art was solidified.

I played flute, I learnt guitar, and Visual Arts was one of my favourite subjects. In year 9 we had a major project, I don’t remember the task, but my final product included the faces of many people that had touched my life, not surprisingly many of those people were from church - my adopted family. In year 10 we had to paint a self portrait. That time had been difficult for me, my mum had breast cancer, my friend broke his neck (thankfully both survived and are fine now), I struggled with being angry at God.

I suppose those things are why I decided to paint my face into puzzle pieces that were broken apart. Behind the pieces were the words of a song, Worlds Apart, that I’ve always found to be so beautiful and truthful. Especially the question, “Did you really have to die for me?” To which the answer is always a painful yes, because we will never be perfect without Jesus’ death to replace ours. Perhaps this was one of my first real expressions of how God is the one who holds things together, even though I felt broken I knew he was there keeping the pieces together.

My year 12 major work had yet more of my attitude, as it was being shaped by God, woven into it. All of the components were an exploration of who you are and who I am, each one of them had a phrase “You are…” some of that for me was obviously spiritual. It included a portrayal of the things that blind us (greed, jealousy, hate, anger, love, and passion), “You are blind.” Some of it was rebellion against the “world’s” way of thinking, forget Descartes, “I am therefore I am.” I exist because God made me to exist.

Since High School I have explored more digital art, including graphics and digital photography. I think that some of the things that we can hope to achieve as Christian artists are to share awareness of important issues, share joy, appreciate the seemingly mundane, and share the beauty of this world that God has made. Sometimes it’s okay for your art to just enjoy life, spend time with family, every single thing you create doesn’t need to have a deep theological message. We share what we believe through our lives and in the end it is God who changes hearts.

So whether you use your art to express how he’s changed you, or to tell others about him, or to just connect with others in a different way, if you let the Spirit shape your thinking (something we should aim for anyway - maturity in Christ) that will shape some of your art.

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