The Beauty of Art

Ever since I left full time ministry, I have attended a church with a bunch of artists. My pastor informs us that we are all artists and that God the creator created us to create. This past week I was able to witness how art can transform a high school campus in the midst of the inner city in Los Angeles. Dozens of professional and famous muralists descended upon our campus and throughout the week created a campus that has become a museum of art. It has brought the district school and the charter school together. It has encouraged the community, but most of all, the students are proud of their school and of who they are.

Art brings people together. Our school has two schools on it. One school is the Los Angeles district school and the other is the charter school. We are united with sports and the cheerleading team. This week, the schools worked together to help the muralists with the murals. Students helped paint, assist the muralists, and documented the murals with photography. Teachers also worked together. Art brings people together. With the beauty of art, we have unity.

Art gives hope. Our students struggle to believe that people outside of the school care about them or their community. Many of our students are led to believe that they have to choose an occupation that will bring money to them, and they don’t realize that if they would do the occupation that they are passionate about not only will they provide for themselves and their family, but they will make the world a better place. Some of our students found that art is an outlet. They went every day after school and waited patiently for their muralists to come so they could help them paint. With the beauty of art, we have hope and a purpose.

Art tells stories that are worth telling and need to be heard. Many of the murals tell the story of South Central Los Angeles, as the muralists are from the community or found students or families from the community to tell their stories. Having hope and having a purpose in life is the theme of many of the murals. With the beauty of art, we can tell stories.

Art builds community. Many of the muralists worked together to help others finish their work. One muralist came from Michigan to help out any of the muralists that may have fallen behind with time due to high winds on one of our days. Students didn’t watch just one person painting on a mural, but several of them worked with teams, including the most famous muralist, Shepherd Fairey. When we experience teamwork to make a beautiful piece, we realize that the way life is beautiful is to have community with others, even if we do not always agree with them. With the beauty of art, we build community.

Art brings pride. To be perfectly honest, our school resembled a prison. A fence and walls surround it and all gates are locked. There is one way in during the day. Then when someone does enter, they must check-in at the office. I get that it’s safety, but imagine being in that environment for six to eight hours a day for five days a week. The walls were bland with yellow, green, and orange. All of this blandness brought school pride to an ultimate low. This week, school pride is at an ultimate high. Students have always complained that we are not like normal high schools in that we do not look like the ones on television or in movies. Today, no school on television or in a movie can hold a candle to the beauty of our campus. Students are now proud when visiting sports teams come to our campus to play against us and are greeted by the largest mural of Maya Angelou. Then as they continue to step onto the campus, they see other murals that surround them. Our students will walk by them with pride. Whether we win sports events or not, pride will always be a part of our campus. With the beauty of art, we build pride in our community.

Young people need to be surrounded by art in order to be a part of the art. Art can change a community and the lives within the community to build hope. As an artist, I see the art that God created in the universe. From the mountains to the deserts to the ocean and the various weather changes, God’s creation surrounds us and it needs to inspire us and bring us hope. The best part of God’s creation is every individual. It is why we need to treat people as priceless. The life changing art on my campus is priceless, but more importantly, the lives of every student and teacher who enters the campus is priceless. The art surrounds the lives that will paint the world with intelligence and experiences that will make a difference in the world around us.  With the beauty of art, priceless lives will change.

Unique

We all have different beliefs. We can go to the same churches, same schools of theology, same family, and yet, still have different beliefs. It is because God created us all to be unique individuals. He didn’t want us all to be robots that He could program to be a specific way. Our society today is trying to diminish our uniqueness and tries to impose on us to all be the same. This is why I still subscribe to the idea that we must listen to the right voices in life.

Recently on social media, I have noticed that people are berating others for their differences in beliefs and thoughts and opinions. (I usually want to tell most of those people not to ever watch a college basketball game with me because as a Duke fan, I will not adhere to their losing team but I resist.) For some people, it’s because if they begin to change some of their core beliefs, then they think they will begin to change their core values. That’s not always true. For others, change is scary. It leads to growth and it leads to change into the unknown, and if we were all honest, change is scary because the unknown is scary.

It all comes down to fear. We fear what we don’t’ know. It’s easier to argue for what we don’t know as we believe it will keep us safe, but Jesus didn’t call us to safety. Jesus doesn’t always lead us to what we know, but many times he leads us into the unknown, which leads us to needing to trust Him. When we fear, we don’t trust. People who berate, call names to others, or argue with simplistic answers fear just as much as those who refuse to change. All of them lack trust in others and in God.

Lack of trust comes when we refuse to communicate. I have noticed that so many people are angry and just yell or make a point and argue foolishly on social media. If we are all unique and admire each person for their differences, then we will actually communicate with others, which means we speak, listen, and understand that a person may not change his or her mind but we can respect others for their own individual stance.

A team must take various individuals and make them work as one. A church is a body that must take various individuals and make them work as one. A military must take various individuals and make them work as one.  The only way any group or team can work as one is for each individual to use his or her own unique gifts and talents and implement them into the group. The other part is allowing others to use their own gifts and talents. We may have to sacrifice something we treasure, but it is better to sacrifice an ideal than a person.

Let me be clear and transparent. I understand that some people may be advocating for a certain sin to be accepted by Christians. That's not what I'm advocating. The Bible is clear. We are to communicate with love when people want to advocate that sin is not sin. If you read enough social media posts, you will realize that most of them are not posted with love, but with anger and hate. No one will listen to anger and hate, no matter how correct the idea is. 

Jesus took a raggedy group of men and created the best leaders in the world who started the church and continued Jesus’s ministry. They all sacrificed.  They all worked together. May we all learn to teach others what we think and believe in a mature and wise way and show the world that even with our differences, the church can work as one and lead many people to Jesus.