Live concerts.
The movies.
Galleries and community events on the town square.
We miss experiencing art in person.
Perhaps more than any other time we can recognize how art connects us to our world, our emotions, ourselves, and each other.
There are few artists who capture what it means to be alive more than Edward Hopper. I doubt that we think of him in those terms right away, but the more we spend time with his paintings, the more we recognize that this is exactly what he captured.
You can hear his paintings. The strings being warmed up, the rustle of a coat or a curtain, someone clearing her throat. You can smell them – the velvet chairs in the audience, the perfumed concertgoers, the paper programs.
You remember the theater. The summer by the lighthouse. That time you stopped for gas one evening. When you used to sit in your room, holding the moment and warming in the sun, hoping that feeling stayed forever.
Art is not something to do. It is not merely something that makes life enjoyable.
Art is life. It’s why we stay alive and what our lives are made of. Without art we are nothing, because we were created to be a work of art, and to create out of that reality for the Glory of the One who made us, and to make the world through our identity and gifts the way He intended.
Your life is a work of art. You were created to create. Every part of your story matters, and even the broken places can be turned into something more beautiful than you can imagine when you learn to seek the heart of the One who made you in His Image. We seek His heart through the practices and the moments where His beauty shows up. He has a plan for you, and He wants to show you what it means to be fully human, fully alive, fully you.
“Two on the Aisle”
Edward Hopper
1927
Image from Edward-Hopper.org
