It Was Good…

Corgi Night, Aja Trier  2018

From reading, pages 3-32 of It was Good, there was a recurring statement in redemption and reasoning. The more detailed questions referred to this: who we are and the redemption we crave, what true truth and beauty are and how we hope to get to be on “God’s refrigerator door”(pg6). What does it mean to be perfect, within our arts, our paintings, and drawings? On page 11, it says that a good piece of artwork is “…what makes a good story”, which is what we read similarly in the previous book, Grace and necessity, where they mention that good art is defined by its ability to make you question yourself and the purpose of the art created in front of you. The questions should be reflecting what your morals are, what first comes to mind and what is last to be a reminder. Good art is more than just ink, lead, paint on a board of any sort, it is to pull you in and make you wonder about the emotions the creator of it had as well as the emotion of the piece in general and what it brings you. They repeat this through these pages, going over that as long as it creates an outside emotion that was not there before, has a movement that can be crafted into a story, and is made with good intentions that it is good art. Though I do not feel I strongly believe in that, I also can see that because of its very vague rules or expectations of how to create good work, then in some ways the ideas of completing any of those listed above, is easy and is based on the person viewing or creating it. Meaning I could look at an image, simply of desolate lands and one flower in the center and what might I think? Well, to me it would be that there can be good in harsh environments that we are raised in, but to some other, it could be something different. In the end, I did feel a certain way about it and therefore it is good art, I can appreciate it, and I can take a bit of it home to talk about later. Maybe I loved the texture of the piece or the craftsmen ship, but overall it might not what causes the initial question unless I find a technique I’ve never seen before, but then that means the craftsmanship is almost unimportant, but that is not the point. In addition to that, good art is also to be diverse, or how they write its “koinonia”(pg 11) because it portrays and pulls perceptive of other people, those with different viewpoints and actions and feel different emotions. Because God created all his children, having all their voices involved and participating not general reason, but individual and inclusive reason. But as much as I see this as true, I wonder why on earth why we crave to create “good work” or “perfect” pieces to be the star on God’s refrigerator door like we did as children, especially in small frames and objects? Like I mentioned before, redemption, but what for? It started when there was a fall, a perception of the good was pulled away and the idea of finding that location of perfection is instilled in us. What might this location look like or feel like? Page 7 mentions this, that we want to capsulate the paradise we want to see and what better is to create it and give others you envision of the perfect? We yearn to explore it but all we can do is try our best to portray it, create it, and show others as if to reassure what “perfect” is and remind others that it’s still there, waiting for us. I am unsure why recreating the same things becomes our coping mechanism and why we copy over and over a location or object to its perfect form, but I appreciate the art that has come to it, because even when I do not agree what perfection is, it still makes me question my idea of perfection and what I can create to capsulize it for others to see as well. I guess there is a true beauty in wanting to show people what God has provided and crafted, but silly that we create all the time to remind others and ourselves.

The Starry Night, Painting by Vincent van Gogh June 1889 oil painting

When you see the traditional image what do you feel? what do you know?

vincent van Gogh’s starry night in France

If you were surrounded by it would it make you feel different?
View the videos :

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d774e7a67444f32457a6333566d54/index.html

http://theprovencepost.blogspot.com/2019/05/van-gogh-show-now-open-in-les-baux.html

and think about your emotions and how they have become different. Did anything change? what was the purpose of its format and is good art(based on their rules above)?