Good art is never what you expect. This surprise, more than even beauty, is what makes it art. It’s the tiny blossom coming through the crack on the sidewalk, or the vulnerability in the “ugly” girl’s eyes. It is the rule that got broken because somebody realized the reason it was there in the first place wasn’t relevant. It’s the way the paint on a paintbrush can imitate the movement of hair in the wind, the way the distortion on a camera lens changes your perspective on something you see every day. If you think about it, it is the unexpected that reveals the glory in a thing, because who would have thought to look otherwise?
It is the unexpected – and the inconvenient – that drives good art, and it was the unexpected and inconvenient that uncovers the good art in me.
Many people know me as a photographer. I take beautiful pictures of the real things, pictures that talk about innocence and childhood and light and sweet glory. I have incredible clients and I’m growing into some amazing opportunities to shoot things I’ve only ever dreamed about. Every day, I recognize myself as an artist, and I make art – but art has never been easy for me.
I began taking photos from the depths of postpartum depression. When I opened my photography business, I was a stay-at-home mom with a 10-month-old and a 3-year-old under my care, and as I have grown my business, I have run into some serious physical and situational limitations. I don’t make art in a perfect world.
Perhaps this is why my good art – the art I am most proud of – it’s the art that most people don’t see, the unexpected gift that has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with glory.
The art I am proudest of is my faith, which when you think about it, isn’t really my art at all. It is an inconvenient concept for things I can’t photograph that makes up my whole identity. Because of my faith, I know that my identity is not “photographer” or “artist” or “wife” or “mama.” My identity is “the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus” and the rest is just gravy and good He made me to do.
It is my faith that gets me up in the morning and pushes me to live outside of my limitations. Faith is the reason I know that eternity isn’t years and years long – it is seconds and seconds stretched into eons because God works so much deeper than I do. It is “walk, don’t run” when the rest of the world hurtles along at breakneck speed when I feel I’m going to be left behind.
I get about sixteen hours (if I am lucky) to fill every day, and I get to choose how I spend that time. Ten minutes gone wrong doesn’t have to ruin my productivity for the rest of the day. A “no” from a publisher doesn’t mean I am finished as a photographer. Choosing to rest for a little while to do nothing means that I will have energy for something else later.
My five-year-plan is a shambles, and my to-do list is panic-attack-inducing, but when I live each moment as if it is a gift (in spite of the unexpected), my daily routine becomes a work of art.
I am coming to understand God a little more as an active Creator, sovereign yet deeply invested in sanctification, restoration, and renewal. As a human being who He has set free to live in Christ, I know myself to be one of His most inconvenient creations – yet He is quite interested in the endless inner workings of the deep heart He put into me.
As I massage my schedule and re-create plans to make beautiful things happen in my imperfect world, I imagine His delight as He takes “all things” and works them together for the good of those who love Him. Sometimes I think I can even hear Him chortle with glee when I look at Him and wonder at the straight path in front of me that used to be crooked.
Living in the moment (however hard it may be) is the kind of art Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to make in us, and the faith by which I live my sixteen hours every day gives me a small inkling of the glory He is going to get for it. It cracks me up how He gets so much more mileage out of the unexpected and the inconvenient walking around with His name on it.
1. Delonna Gibbs ~ http://etsy.com/shop/ClothedinLove
2. Becky Cunningham ~ Buckets of Burlap
3. Daune Pitman ~ Cottage in the Oaks
4. Anna White ~ 2Day I Choose
5. Rebekah Madran ~ http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/user/251611783/
6. Kristi Neises ~ http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/detail/569029158231195907_4868439
1. Kelli McKnight ~ The Story Place
2. Sarah Jo Burch ~ Sarah Jo Knits
3. Brenda Manley ~ on Instagram
4. NJ Rongner ~ A Cookie Before Dinner
5. Shana Norris
6. Laura Anne Clement ~ my story, His story
8. Virginia Johnson ~ Vava’s View
9. Courtney Shanahan ~ All These Bright Things
10. Julsann10 ~ on Instagram
11. Lisette Romaro ~ on Facebook
See you on Monday as we dive into Part 2, Uncover the Art You Were Born to Make & Chapter 3, Desire. If this week is any indication, readers are going to have a lot to say after reading and watching the video!
*****
Helpful links and reminders:
- A Million Little Ways book club schedule.
- Never miss an update by signing up for exclusive emails for Bloom (in)courage!
- Need a book? Pick up A Million Little Ways for only $9.99 at DaySpring.com.
- Join Bloom (in)courage on Facebook! We’re trying to grow our community there, so we’d like to see YOUR smiling avatar.
- Tweet your thoughts about our study! When you use the#inbooks hashtag, we can find you!
- Emily’s site, Chatting at the Sky
- Jessica’s site, The Mom Creative
- Angie’s site, Bring the Rain
p.s. Hey lovies ~ Emily and I are at Allume blog conference in Greenville, SC and we’ll likely be slower to respond to comments given a busy schedule; but PLEASE shower your comment love on our wonderful guest contributor, Kelly Sauer and all the creative artists featured in this week’s collage duo!
~ robin
Leave a Comment
Love the collages!! So much fun.
Kelly, I love you post! Our faith is our art. Beautiful concept!
Beautiful and thoughtful post, thank you for sharing. As I ponder this, I have come to the conclusion, my faith is indeed artistic. My faith is God’s art within me and I am His pallet. How creative he is. I always say God has a sense of humor, imagine the fun He had designing the giraffe, orangutan, baboon and the details of delicate perfection and beauty found in a passion flower, rose, you or I. Have a blessed day in found in God’s glory. Enjoy. Shalom.
I love picturing Him laughing, don’t you? It’s so neat to consider His enjoyment of His creation!
I’ve been enjoying going slow through A Million Little Ways this week. My eyes have been opened to art that others have created right in my own home. Like oh wow look someone took that picture on that calendar, someone made that quilt I bought at that auction, the design on my favorite coffee cup- someone came up with that! Even the incredible technology we have- wow God gave someone the brains to come up with this stuff!! As God’s creation points me to Him- now as I see what God’s creation has created I’m pointed back to Him as well. Looking forward to learning and seeing more new things this coming week, in God’s will 🙂
Beautiful! I keep getting surrounded by women who have beautiful things to say! Please keep being real, and you write well.
thank you Debi – you’re so sweet!
“Sometimes I think I can even hear Him chortle with glee when I look at Him and wonder at the straight path in front of me that used to be crooked.” I never thought of God chortling. Laughing, smiling, yes, but not a good hearty chortle, although I’m sure I’ve given cause to do so many times. Thank you for this!
Oh, how could we feel these things if He doesn’t feel these things? I love how being made in His image gives us a glimpse into His delight!
Hi Kelly,
I remember you when you and Claire were doing “Three From Here and There”. Your photography is poignant~always makes a gentle statement or draws one to thinking.
I don’t remember reading anything you had written before. This was beautiful as is your art. From the heart and so powerful. My take away: “when I live each moment as if it is a gift (in spite of the unexpected), then my daily routine becomes art.” I will take this to heart and pray my eyes really see the art.
Thank you, Kelly. So nice to meet you again, here.
Blessings,
Janis
Janis – so fun to see you again! I am glad you like my writing as well as my photography – it has been a while since I’ve really delved in, and lately God has opened a few doors for me to write again. I’ve been liking it very much (at least on the finished end! :-P), and I am so glad it reconnected us here!
I know I have been quiet until now, but I just love this book and the things it is unfolding in my life. I love how Kelly says that her art is her faith, because I feel the same way. It is out of my faith that I started blogging and doing all the other things that I do, and it is my faith that speaks loudest in my life. I see that this book is going to be freeing me to embrace all that I am. Already skimmed the chapter on Desire, and will be reading it again before Monday….but it’s just amazing how Emily gets right to the heart of the matter.
Emily is SO. GOOD. about bringing it back – I love her so much!
This statement in the middle of your post was a delightful surprise: “When I live each moment as if it is a gift (in spite of the unexpected), my daily routine becomes a work of art.” What an attitude-adjusting, joy-expectant way to meet life’s demands, including those frustrating interruptions! Thank you, Kelly!
Oh that is funny – I didn’t even think of it as attitude adjustment, Nancy! I usually run away from terms like that, yet here it is!
The stories have died. Or perhaps ridden away in a glorious landau. I don’t know exactly when they got away from me. Life became so intense. There has been so much illness in my family my whole life that I can’t believe that that has been the cause. Rather, the cause has seemed to be my decline followed by improvement. How my returning strength could have driven off the self-story-telling that had always been a way of life confounds me. I didn’t really realize the stories were fading into mist until I read the words in A Million Little Way. With the burning off of the morning autumn fog I suddenly see that I no longer tell myself stories. I don’t have time. I juggle franticly to keep up with what needs doing. There is precious little time for thinking.
Still. I miss the engaging stories that unfolded like the petals of an alba rose of hundreds of petals. Life was always new when I was laid up sick on my bed or chaise. I have lain flat on my back and stared at my medallion encrusted, roseate hued ceiling and travelled time and the world. Now I am able to be upright for hours and rush from activity to activity to help others until I collapse in a haze too thick to think. Without a computer in my hand all the time I can’t begin to keep the caregiving and work strait. Somehow I almost never take time to write. I need clearer head-space to write.
This. Yes. I am feeling this so strongly myself today. I wrote out of my pain, but I don’t want/have pain any longer, and now I don’t know what my own story is. This post was so very, very hard for me to write because of it…
God makes all things work together for our good. How did I never see the connection between that and my own need to constantly tweak and adjust things so they all work out? What we sometimes see as inconveniences or hardships are his tweakings. We need to yield to the master Tweaker!
Love your phrase about massaging your schedule, Kelly. Thanks for an insightful post.
Lou – I love this for you, not just to notice God for His tweakings, but also to honor and accept that part of His image in you as you try to adjust things! That is your art, made more as you yield it to Him…
I like how you call God an “active creator” because He is. I think we tend to think He created a long time ago and is done. But He is still shaping and creating us, His children into something new–and more into His likeness everyday. That is so hope giving.
And I love the phrase “inconvenient art” because as a mother, my art is always inconvenient, but always so needed.
Love that you’re sharing here, Kelly!
I love your art, Danielle – thank you for being here with me!
Your comments, “As I massage my schedule and re-create plans” and “Living in the moment” are two things I have never been good at. I love your use of the word massage. It gives me the picture of working things around, not necessarily throwing things totally out of your schedule. And the word re-create does not give the feeling of “wrong in the first place”, just that one must adjust to change. I am working on the living in the moment thing. So hard as I try to speed through one thing to get to the next without enjoying the moment.
Good words for thought. Thank you for sharing with us!
I can totally relate to you!
Abundant life is so very much about redemption, isn’t it?
I like the reminder that I am God’s Child first. I am a mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc. second. It is so easy to forget, but it makes life simpler and easier when I remember my first identity. Everything else flows out of that.
I forget that so often. I used to even get annoyed with God because the only thing He’d ever give me on “who am I, God” was “the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” It doesn’t feel like much, until you realize it is everything.
I love this sweet post, Kelly. You’e an amazing photographer and writer 🙂
My favorite line…”when I live each moment as if it is a gift”. Such words to live by.
Thanks for blessing me with your words today!
And, thanks for sharing my photo and blog in the collage!
Honored to be here with you, Becky!