The Holy Bible. Photo: Joshimer Biñas, pexels.com
People put value on all manner of things, yet ultimately, it’s the ‘eye of the beholder’ that is final arbiter in determining the worth and significance of something.
This is especially true when it comes to ‘art’. Aotearoa New Zealand’s premier award for drawing is said to be the Parkin Drawing Prize. This Parkin Prize website says this annual competition “promotes drawing in all its forms – as discovery, a testing of ideas and decision making”.
Murray Smith
Many interesting artworks are entered and without doubt, it’s a useful stimulus for our creatives to originate work worthy of consideration for the top honour. I risk the furore of the art world in writing this, but it only comes from my lack of understanding and poor level of appreciating fine art – at least that’s the only conclusion I can come to, when an A4 piece of paper with thousands of typewritten forward-slash characters on it gets chosen as winner of the $25,000 prize. My lack of insightfulness was earlier highlighted by a previous winning entry consisting of offcuts of carpet scraps piled up against a wall.
The art world can be unusual. A New York ‘interactive art installation’ comprised an electric chair timed to randomly ‘light up’ any moment in the next decade. People queued for their turn to take a seat and run the gauntlet. A Yugoslavian ‘artist’ named Marina Abramović stood beside a table with 72 items on it ranging from a feather, to grapes, to a gun loaded with a single bullet. Visitors were invited to do anything they wanted to her using anyone of those 72 items. One visitor did hold the gun to Marina’s head – until another pulled the man away.
As a trainee teacher, my daughter was asked to take an art lesson in the school. She wanted to create an engaging lesson. One little kid stated he was useless at art and proceeded to do pencil scribbles. My daughter leaned over saying, “even a scribble can be art”. Deftly adding touches, she transformed his scribbles by rendering a dinosaur with teeth. “What makes it art, is if it has a story behind it…and…love.” Inspired, the whole class began offering their own scribbles and even produced random stuff off the floor asking, “Is this art?”
One boy asked, “Am I art Miss?” “Yes”, she replied, “You are an incredible piece of art… just look at you!” Beaming, he strutted around declaring to his classmates, “Hey, Miss says I’m art !”
That little boy being affirmed as ‘an incredible piece of art’ was profound truth. Our Creator sees us as being of inestimable value. The Bible says, “We are God’s masterpiece. He created us in Jesus Christ, for the good things He planned for us long ago”.
Understanding this truth; that the God of the Universe intentionally, thoughtfully, lovingly designed you as His magnum opus – His precious masterpiece, how differently might you treat and view both yourself and others?
