Those who perceive in themselves this kind of divine spark which is the artistic vocation—as poet, writer, sculptor, architect, musician, actor and so on—feel at the same time the obligation not to waste this talent but to develop it, in order to put it at the service of their neighbour and of humanity as a whole. – Letter of St. Pope John Paul II to Artists
To be a true artist is to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and endowed with the charism of artistry. Artists are endowed with a special grace to communicate God’s glory through the work of their hands, bodies, and hearts.
To be a true artist is to personally express one’s reaction to the world. It is to look outside at the world and then reflect upon it. It is to process it through one’s mind, heart, and soul and then communicate what one thinks and feels. It doesn’t have to be quantifiable. It doesn’t have to be logical. It is pure expression.
To be a true artist is to express one’s humanity. It is to give the world a way to understand its longing, sadness, joy, cheer, humor, confusion, grief, and ecstasy. It is the power to communicate deep emotions and thoughts in words, as well as to make manifest what cannot be expressed with words. It is the power to move hearts to empathy and compassion. It is the power to bring about catharsis and heal the emotional wounds of the world.
To be a true artist is to answer God’s call to create with your own fiat—yes! It is partnering with God to create something new. When a musician sings or plays a melody, he or she is creating something of beauty that did not exist before that very moment. When a dancer moves in artistic expression, he or she is saying yes to God’s call to move the thoughts and emotions of others through dance.
To be a true artist is to release the beauty of God’s creation from the depths of one’s soul into the world, in word, paint, sound, gesture, and even cooking. It is to add to the beauty of God’s creation. Beauty that draws one in and delights or confounds or provokes one to thought. It is to be a channel of God’s beauty that draws one into the mystery of the Triune God Himself.
To be a true artist is to feed a culture starved for humanity and the divine. It is to feed the soul of the one who is hungry for truth, goodness, and beauty and may not even know it. It is to remind people that there is more to the world than what we see each day. It is to “reflect the infinite perfection of God” to the world through truth, goodness, and beauty (CCC 41).
To be a true artist is to speak to individual hearts. Each and every person will experience a work of art in a different way, through his or her own worldview and experiences. It is to speak with and without words to the deepest parts of the human heart.
To be a true artist is to inspire wonder. It is to arrest the bodies and minds of people and move them to metanoia, to transformation, so as to live in harmony with this new beauty they have encountered. Great writing has the power to move one to tears, laughter, anger, or action. Music has the power to move the body according to its rhythms and dynamics. Paintings have the power to arrest the viewer, capturing the person in the wonder of its creation.
To be a true artist is to lead people to God. For art that is inspired by the Holy Spirit has qualities of truth, goodness, and beauty. These transcendent qualities lead us deeper into the mystery of God
To be a true artist is to be a reflection of God in the world. To bring beauty, light, and truth to the world in imitation of God the Father, our Creator, the first and divine Artist.
St. Joseph, patron of craftsmen, pray for us. St. Catherine of Bologna, patron of artists, pray for us.
“And Moses said to the people of Israel, ‘See, the Lord has called by name Bez′alel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oho′liab the son of Ahis′amach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with ability to do every sort of work done by a craftsman or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.’” – Exodus 35:30-35
“Created ‘in the image of God,’ man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2501
Here is a link to St. Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Artists. As a writer and musician, it is a true inspiration to me: Letter to Artists.