Truth and Beauty through Art
How should a Christian set out to express his or her beliefs through artistic media? Ross Lawhead, recently a writer-in-residence at Schloss Mittersill, shares his thoughts:
'Since I believe in truth and beauty, which in turn feeds my faith in God and Christ who are perfect realisations of those qualities, then my artistic expression manifests itself, on my better days, as simply portraying truth and beauty (even ugly beauty, which you find in a mature artist like Dostoevsky), as, when, and where I find it. With positive motivation like that, artistic expression becomes truly creative, and not merely reactive.'
'I think that an artist’s strength comes from the truthful display of his or her emotions - that’s how they connect with the reader, audience, viewer, or whoever they’re trying to communicate with. Which means not being ashamed to admit when we don’t have ‘the answer’, which a lot of times we don’t. I think we as modern Christians are afraid to embrace the truth of uncertainty and the beauty of ineffability.'
Ross was recently interviewed by UK comic publisher Undercurrent Comics. Read the full interview here.