My sewing room windows directly overlook my garden. It is a very peaceful setting, filled with the greenery of ferns and hosts along with many other perennials. It looks like a park. There is a red stone path curving through the garden which invites a slow stroll with all of one’s senses open to what the garden might be saying. What is the message of the garden? I think it is saying, “Be silent. Let the peace saturate your spirit. It is in the quiet place that creativity and art can grow. Leave your stress at the garden gate.”
There is a worship song which says, “Let our eyes be open to the way You move, Let our ears be open to the way of truth. Let Your Spirit break out any way You choose–we don’t care, we don’t care, Lord, we just want You.”
What an invitation for revival that is! From the revival of one’s spirit, art blooms.
What is art?
A Google search reveals that Art, in its broadest sense, is a form of communication. It means whatever the artist intends it to mean, and this meaning is shaped by the materials, techniques, and forms it makes use of, as well as the ideas and feelings it creates in its viewers . Art is an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations; yet art is also a way of receiving and processing the message conveyed by the artist in a personal and unique way..
Many argue that art cannot be defined … Art is often considered the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations and ways of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture and paintings…and for me, needle crafts.
Everything is a form of art. Communicating something without words, something that speaks to people in an ever-busy and ever-noisy world, art is an escape from the constant chaos and pressure. When it comes to art, you can be anyone you want to be and express anything you choose, and at the same time all of that is relative to the way in which it is received and interpreted.
Technically, the seven principles of art and design are line, shape, color, value, form, texture, and space. The elements of art and design are balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, and unity/variety. All of these things have a way of coming into play without any conscious effort on my part. It just “looks right” or “feels right”.
This summer, I have been allowing the silence and serenity of the garden to enter into my sewing room through the open window. In this atmosphere of waiting and expectancy, it is natural for me to take up a piece of fabric or a treasured item of someone’s clothing in my hands and gazing upon it, ask it what it wants to become. If I listen and wait, I will hear the answer.
Whether I am designing a special project for a customer, or creating tangible blessings to be shared with the needy, I am producing art. But I cannot create art in my own power. It takes a divine touch from the Creator of All Art to really bring to birth something that will speak to its recipient in my voice and His voice. Never just my voice. That would be hollow and empty. His Voice adds life and light and dimension, and brings a quiet message of ministry beyond what the eye can see.
The art that truly brings forth blessing begins in the garden, walking with the Lord. It wafts in through the sewing room window and takes form beneath my hands. Out the door it goes on the wings of a prayer for God’s personal and deeply felt touch upon every area of the life it will enter into.
Art by Rhea 