Betty Spackman: “Finding the freedom to imagine and explore.”

Betty Spackman, installation artist, painter and author of the new book A Profound Weakness: Christians and Kitsch wrote a brief article for the Belhaven publication Creative Spirit. Here are a few little tidbits from the article:

“Christians who would otherwise acknowledge incarnation as a quintessential part of their faith, tend to deny the possibilities of the incarnate when it comes to the arts.”

“Unaccepted as artists in the church and as Christians in the academy, we have, out of necessity, defined ourselves as residents in a ‘no man’s land,’ which has resulted in many homeless ‘casualties’ who also felt it to be a place where there was ‘no God.’”

“Whether one is an artist or not, I think as Christians we are all implicated in the horrendous deficiency of imagination, the visual illiteracy, the dispassionate celebrations of the “the joy of our salvation,” the uncaring lamentations of our sorrow for the oppressed and wounded, our lack of protest for the destruction of our ecosystem and the consumerist kitsch that is the predominant expression of faith in most of the Christian community.” [Emphasis mine]

“A child doesn’t often tell you that they are joyful; they just show it. Perhaps the world will start to believe us if we start to show the life in us instead of just talking about the “joy unspeakable and full of glory” ( I Peter 1:8). Perhaps when we play we will find new things to talk about and new ways to talk about them. Perhaps our Father will also be delighted to see that we are finally enjoying the gifts that He gave us!”