Sherry Barrett - Linedancers.org
  • Home
  • Sign up for class!
  • Line Dancing
    • Senior Living Resort Dancing
    • Line Dance Level 3
    • Line Dance Resources
    • Step Sheets
    • Instructional Videos
    • Dance Blog
    • Choreography
    • PHOTO GALLERY
  • ABOUT
  • Art Gallery
    • The Artist Sherry Barrett >
      • Art Instructional Videos
      • FREE Art Resources
      • TOU
      • Blog
    • #MeToo - Hope In Release
    • Drawings Slide Show
    • Watercolor Slide Show
    • #SpillGrace
    • Images for Instrospection
    • St. Nicholas Project
    • Abstract Art
  • Contact

Art Instruction and Musings

Artists are Grace Dispensers

11/20/2017

0 Comments

 
My husband met Philip Yancey at an event last year and received a copy of his book Vanishing Grace.  Justin enjoyed his dinner conversation with the author and suggested I might enjoy his book. I finally got around to reading it and this part really grabbed hold of me:
GRACE DISPENSERS
While discussing the growing antipathy toward Christians, a friend remarked to me, "There are three kinds of Christians that outsiders to the faith still respect:  pilgrims, activists, and artists. The uncommitted will listen to them far sooner than to an evangelist or apologist."  Although nonbelievers do not oppose a spiritual search, they will listen only to those Christians who present themselves as fellow-pilgrims on the way rather than as part of a superior class who has already arrived.  Activists express their faith in the most persuasive way of all, by their deeds.  And art succeeds when it speaks most authentically to the human condition; when believers do so with skill, again the world takes note.
As a Christian artist I have a responsibility to dispense Grace. To do this effectively, I must become the best artist I can be so that my skills do not interfere with the message. I must spend hours practicing and refining my art in order to present the most clear and understandable images possible.
I am often quoted as saying, "Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you can suck at your job". As Christians, we must be better at our jobs than the average person because we are representing the King. Christian art should never be synonymous with second rate, just okay, cliche, or predictable art. If we do our job properly, Christian art should mean inspired, beautiful, truthful, insightful, excellent. I may not be there yet, but I have a life time to perfect my artistic skills and leave something that outsiders of the faith will hopefully respect, admire, and stir them to investigate the source of my beliefs and their own. In the end, I hope to be remembered as a dispenser of grace-filled art for a hurting world. What are you dispensing?

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Sherry Barrett is an active artist who takes inspiration from great works of literature, historical figures, and wise people.

    Archives

    February 2021
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    Categories

    All
    Achieving Likeness
    Art Museums
    Art Therapy
    Bad Art
    Devotional Art
    Digital Art
    Drawing
    For New Artists
    Getting Unstuck
    Life Of An Artist
    Oil Painting
    Pandemic Artist
    Perspective
    Realism
    Staging Art
    Varnishing

    RSS Feed

    Sherry Barrett
  • Home
  • Sign up for class!
  • Line Dancing
    • Senior Living Resort Dancing
    • Line Dance Level 3
    • Line Dance Resources
    • Step Sheets
    • Instructional Videos
    • Dance Blog
    • Choreography
    • PHOTO GALLERY
  • ABOUT
  • Art Gallery
    • The Artist Sherry Barrett >
      • Art Instructional Videos
      • FREE Art Resources
      • TOU
      • Blog
    • #MeToo - Hope In Release
    • Drawings Slide Show
    • Watercolor Slide Show
    • #SpillGrace
    • Images for Instrospection
    • St. Nicholas Project
    • Abstract Art
  • Contact