more art post

I know this probably seems academic, but I think about these things, not just for myself, but because I want to train the children I am raising as well as they pursue their artistic interests. Also, it bothers me that we Christians really seem to have abandoned the arts. I think in a way we distrust beauty. We know that appearances can be deceiving, and we also know that in our culture the young and beautiful have been elevated to be far more important than everyone else. So, I think we have abandoned beauty as a virtue. I know that at times in my life I felt like if I tried to beautify my home and things like that I would feel like I was being materialistic. But does beauty have value itself?

Well, we look to the attributes of God we see that He possesses beauty. 

One [thing] have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. Psalm 27:4

God says that holiness is beautiful.

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.  Psalm 29:2

God beautifies His people.

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.  Psalm 90:17

God takes away beauty as a rebuke.

When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man [is] vanity. Selah.  Psalm 39:11

So obviously God sees beauty as something He values. It can be deceptive, it should be handled carefully, but we should not throw out the baby with the bath water.

I know that I am inspired by beauty. I used to feel guilty about that, like it was worldly of me maybe. But I think actually it's just part of who God made me to be. But I used to be troubled as I would seek out beauty. As I traversed the internet, I really enjoy blogs where the author has taken time to make their blog beautiful. But you know, MOST of the most beautiful blogs out there, the ones that celebrate daily life, take the ordinary and give it back glorified are NOT by Christian women. Or, if they are, it seems that Christian women are only comfortable with two types of beauty-Victorian and that sort of quilty country look. And those who are more in the other areas of beauty, more contemporary styles, are kind of... quiet about their faith... well, they might let it peek out every so often, but often they seem almost apologetic about it.

Can I be honest with you? I'm not so much into Victorian. I used to wonder if maybe I lacked some aspect of femininity because I wasn't. But, I don't know. I'm just not. 

I wish Christian women were more at the fore front of the women's arts and craft movement, which is really exploding right now. As I look for inspiration in magazines like "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" and all the Somerset magazine, "Quilting Arts" etc. I see very little Christian voice. That may be the editors, but I don't completely think so because when I look at the really good stuff on etsy it kind of seems the same. Very little Christian artistic voice. Why?  Can anyone explain this to me?

The painting below is Winslow Homer by the way. I forgot to label it so late at night...

And I'm not targeting any particular blog or person in these posts. This is stuff that just kind of swirls around in my head and I get all wound up in my own head and... well... that's why I have a blog.