Why do I create?

Sometimes the reason for creating art is as simple as needing an outlet. Other times, it’s the need to find a way to use my skills to help pay the bills, or maybe I should have become a poet. Often, we create in an effort to bring order to something within us that longs to speak.

For me, creating art is a mix of all these things. I need a creative outlet because I work a job that isn’t very creative. I need to use my skills to help pay the bills because I have two small children who are growing quickly and eating even faster than I can keep up.

Ultimately, I create because I want to embrace the beauty around me. Life moves so fast with school, work, church, hobbies, and endless activities. Yet beauty doesn’t walk at that same pace. Beauty causes you to slow down and take a moment. Beauty says there is more to life than the hustle and bustle of achieving. Beauty reminds you that life will be okay.

The reason I create art is because I need to remember what beauty is. Beauty points us to something beyond ourselves, something we cannot fully comprehend. That beyond has always been a question in our hearts. Yet that beyond is also here with us. That beyond came down to be with us and to call us back into His beauty.

Recently, I listened to a song by John Mark McMillan titled The Beauty of the Lord, and it reminded me how thirsty I am for that beauty. I also realized how many of us are longing for it in a world that can feel so ugly, a world that strips people of their humanity and reduces them to numbers, opinions, or anything but who they truly are.

I’m constantly reminded in Genesis that we were called to be His image on earth, not simply to look like Him, think like Him, or walk like Him, but to embrace, to order, and to tend to creation as He does with our hearts.

I paint landscapes, flowers, and quiet moments from my busy life to remind myself of this beauty I’m called to be in awe of, to steward well, and to share with others. I create these pieces to help others realize how much beauty surrounds them and to find healing in that beauty, which is ultimately the Lord Himself.

I’ve mentioned before that I wanted to create a visual prayer language. That is the heart behind why I started El Taller Mata, to create art and prayer together, to remind us of our Maker’s love, and to draw us toward something beyond our momentary suffering or fleeting joy.

I believe that even if you don’t believe in God as I do, He still desires to speak to you and reveal Himself to you, just as He has to me in so many ways. If nothing else, I hope my art offers a restful place for your eyes in a world constantly filled with noise and distraction. I pray that my art sparks a conversation within you, a question about what lies beyond this world.

For the believer, I pray my art would be a place of rest for your eyes and awe for your soul, a moment to dwell with the Lord, to recognize the beauty He has set around us, and to step away from the constant battle. We do not need to strive; we are simply called to abide in Him.