Imagination

 

The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him. -José Ortega y Gasset, The Dehumanization of Art (1925) Artists Imagine... It's a fact. They have to.    It's inherent in the functionality of an artist.  Artists that don't imagine are like un-wet water or sound without hearing (Zen).       Surprisingly... there are a lot of similarities between faith and art.. -Artists have faith.. on some level.. that something can be known. (and communicated).   Even the absurdity of Nihilistic art has faith that nothing matters.       -People of (genuine) faith.. use their imagination as part of the faith process...  though admitting that makes us terribly uncomfortable... (we'd rather believe our experiences to be uncluttered of subjectivity).. we want them to be accepted as provable as the parting of waters.. or as certain as science. -Artists visualize and imagine a thing... and then by way of metaphor or symbol.. (even if representationally) act to create. -All peoples of faith imagine.. the supernatural world...  What God looks like... Divinity.. etc..    ..and by way of life as a metaphor.. act to recreate that life in the world.. (theoretically.. for the better..)...  It's really very existential.     Both artists and people of faith deal with the expression of reality and truth.  Both experience inspiration..  subjectively and intimately.  Both struggle to get that inspiration out... into the "real".. "objective".. world... (whatever that means). Both deal with the paradoxes and the absurdities of modern life.  Both struggle to communicate..... especially in a modern world... Lastly...  unless you're famous... or workin for "the man".  There's little.. to no money in both art and faith. Tulsa.. home of the original TV evangelists... workin for the other "Man" notwithstanding... That Can Change!  Support Local Art!!