Creativity

This is my 14th year teaching Humanities at ECA and, unfortunately, it will be my last for a while... It has been one of my favorite subjects to teach and I will definitely miss this interaction with my students as we observe and respond to art in its various forms and also create art together. I have certainly learned as much as they have and my understanding of art has deepened over the years. One important concept is that our capacity to create comes from our Creator and when we create using the images, ideas and talents that He has given us, we honor Him and His gift of creativity. Hopefully we also challenge others to think about aspects of life and Truth as well as entertain them with beauty, humor, drama and passion. Of course when we destroy or deface the creativity of others, we are rebelling against the creative gifts God has given us and dishonoring Him and ourselves.

One assignment I've given students these last few years is to create a piece of art at the end of the year which communicates some aspect of Truth. There are really only 5 categories of Truth and each one forms part of a person's world-view: 1) What is the nature of God? 2) What is the nature of man? 3) What is the nature and origin of the universe? 4) What is the purpose of life? 5) What is good (and/or evil)? The Christian world-view takes a particular stance on each of these questions and has fancy words for the study of each: Theology, Anthropology (with Sociology & Psychology), Biology (with Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Geology), Teleology, and Ethics. Mono-theists believe that one all-powerful spiritual being created everything and gave humans the responsibility to enjoy and care for it. Other world-views are based on other presuppositions (one being that humans are the products of chance, contrary to the first 2 Laws of Thermodynamics, and that any perceived purpose or morality in the universe is a biological or social malfunction of the human brain).

When the students complete their work of art, which might take a variety of forms, I have them present their project and the class analyzes the piece based on what they observe in it and how it makes them evaluate their beliefs. The project here was done in this year and shows how we perceive order and design and our desire to recreate it for others to enjoy as well.