{"id":180,"date":"2005-05-23T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2005-05-23T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/index.php\/art-0r-craft\/"},"modified":"2005-05-23T10:00:54","modified_gmt":"2005-05-23T15:00:54","slug":"art-0r-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/art-0r-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"Art or craft?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some Christian artists believe that anything done for God is acceptable, even if it&#8217;s artistically flawed, if it quotes enough scripture or something. And others confuse spirit and soul, and believe that as long as it stirs your aesthetic sensibilities, it&#8217;s acceptable as Christian art. One approach is to think of ourselves as craftsmen instead of artists. Our job is to make well what needs making. Our job isn&#8217;t to fit some stereotype of an artist, or to expose our inmost expressions (express our fascinating self) to the world. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Often artists are taught that they&#8217;re supposed to be self-centered, that  nothing must stop the creative flow.  Before the 19th century, all art was a craft, a trade, a job. You served as an apprentice under another artist, just as a blacksmith served under an older blacksmith. You made paintings or wrote chorales for specific uses, not for self-expression. <\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t believe that art is just decoration or Muzak, but I think it&#8217;s healthy for an artist to seek excellence in their craft, looking outside themselves instead of looking within. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some Christian artists believe that anything done for God is acceptable, even if it&#8217;s artistically flawed, if it quotes enough scripture or something. And others confuse spirit and soul, and believe that as long as it stirs your aesthetic sensibilities, it&#8217;s acceptable as Christian art. One approach is to think of ourselves as craftsmen instead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-desperate-suggestions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homecomers.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}