The Evolution of Artistic Vision

What shapes every creative act? How do we respond to change as the artistic process unfolds? Come with me and explore how our creative vision is formed and evolves over time.

Within every creative act there is meaning, a deeper intent. We have the ember, the creative spark that drives us, compels us. This is the calling, the innate desire to create. But beyond that, each act is influenced and expressed in a unique way, based on our vision for our works and our world. We are always growing and changing, dealing with new experiences and challenges. Our artistic vision evolves as well, and that changes how it influences our works and our relationship to them. I have been reflecting on this a lot as get closer to completing my school program and beginning a new phase in my artistic journey, contemplating both my past and my future on this road.

So what is artistic vision? When I reference it here, what I mean is one’s unique way of seeing the world and how this is translated into and voiced in one’s artistic works. Art is very much about expression – expression of ideas, ideals, emotions, experiences, values. It may be a simple expression of beauty or humor. One of my favorite things about photography is the way it can capture moments, elevate what may seem commonplace or mundane by presenting it from a unique viewpoint. Some of my favorite works I have produced are black and white images of light and shadow patterns. They express the beauty of this simple detail, something that could be easily overlooked. Other works could be an expression of something deeper, a story, emotion, or experience. It is not always about beauty. We live in a broken world. An artistic work could be an expression of the ugliness or injustice of something.

Ultimately, our artistic vision is tied to our why – why we choose to express what we do. And this why is tied to our values and beliefs. We express what we believe to be true, or right or wrong. We express the relative value things have to us. Like I said, it could be an expression of something simple – as another example, books frequently show up in my still life photographs because I love reading – but is still an expression of what we consider valuable. In my first post, I discussed how the human characteristic of creativity reflects God’s characteristic of creativity – human beings are creative because we are made in God’s image, or after His character.

So that is why we possess creativity. But people are broken. We decided we did not want to live under the perfect reign of our beautiful Creator, yet nothing functions as it should except under Him (since He is perfect and He designed it all). So our why is also broken. It is like every part of us, bearing marks of its original beauty and intent even as it is scarred by this brokenness. Our why can come from value wrongly placed. It can come from a place of selfish desire, or lies believed as truth. But for those in Him, Christ refashions our hearts, the frameworks of reality in which we live our lives. For He is meant to be our true Why. Why do we create? For Him. To glorify Him. To walk closely with Him in the journey. To follow Him where He leads us.

And this is something we are unable to do alone, but He guides us and empowers us, always drawing us back to Himself. I struggle and slip here again and again. Because it is easy to get distracted from this true purpose. Because I want to hold everything and do it all myself. But the beautiful part is that I don’t have to. And He reminds me of this again and again.

Within our great, overarching why purpose, there are unique circumstances and influences that shape the intent of each individual work. Our why may not be very deep with every work. Our intent may change even as we change and grow personally. Perhaps we begin a work without even knowing why. Perhaps we have a why, a desire, but we don’t know where it is going. And where any why is going can change along the way. Six years ago I took a sheet of loose-leaf paper and began a story. It was going to be a fairy tale, about a princess, who had secrets, who felt different because of those secrets. Later came a twist – what if her family had secrets as well, secrets they had kept from her? And I had another story, a separate one, with a pair of villains but no hero. And here I didn’t really have an actual villain in my fairy tale yet….

So, plots and pages later, this turned into the basis for a novel. That was at the beginning of high school. There was a moment, prior to this, when God spoke to me and opened to me writing with Him, for Him. And this story was His, to glorify Him and testify to His never-ending love. In the end, it all comes back to Him. But in the in-between there is struggle, back and forth. He is always faithful. I am not always. Throughout all this time, as I have walked through this story, my struggles and fears and hopes and desires all have bled into it – my ups and downs, moments of closeness and distance. And all of these things, though they looked one way when I was fourteen, not all of them look that same way now. Some do, perhaps. Some have become more fully realized. And this is still a journey I am walking on. There is more growth that will happen, that needs to happen, things that need to be refined and defined.

As I get ready to finish my program at my school, I am preparing my portfolio for whatever opportunities lie ahead after graduation. In the midst of this, I am evaluating my photographic work and having to take a look at it through different eyes. The portfolio preparation is actually part of a class dedicated to this very activity, and I am receiving feedback from my instructor and peers as well. The goal is to build the strongest possible presentation, that will demonstrate my skills and appeal to potential employers or clients. I have to look at some of my favorite pieces of work and decide they may not meet these goals at this time. It is a necessary step in my artistic and career journey. I created many of these works to capture a thing of beauty – fleeting light and shadows, an aesthetic still life arrangement. Their value is not diminished in my mind or heart but I am having to examine them from an alternate point of view.

Sometimes others will see our work differently than we do. This can be a positive challenge that pushes us to grow as an artist. Through discussions both in my classes at school and in the writers’ group I am a member of, I have learned the value of critique. It can open our minds to new possibilities we might otherwise have missed. Other times we may need to choose to stay true to our vision even in the face of differing opinions, opposition, or misunderstanding. This is still something I am learning and growing in. But I believe that God gives us each a unique vision that is beautiful and valuable. He guides us, and He will challenge us and draw us closer to seeing the world within His own vision.

This is the endgame, our vision becoming each day increasingly aligned with the vision of the Creator. He opens our eyes to see the world more and more in the way He does, a way that we on our own could never comprehend. Most importantly, He opens our eyes more and more to Himself and His true nature. Nothing else will fall into place until we see Him truly. And again, this is part of the journey, the process, not instantaneous but slow yet sure. Even when we don’t know where it’s going or stumble and fall or look back on parts of the journey different than where we are now, He is with us wherever we are, have been, or will be.

So seek your artistic vision. Seek this vision change. Hold fast to the vision you have been given, because it is not only yours. Others may be out there who need to see what only you can show them.