The Beauty of Art

A photo by Steve Hixon

I attended a meeting of photographers and photography lovers from my church this morning. During the meeting I was struck by a realization of the depth of art. Art, as I like to define it, is creativity's physical expression. It is the result of using our creative gifts and urges, whether it's a new way to stack the dishes or an oil painting. This morning, our teaching pastor, Steve Hixon, showed us some of his photographs of which he was really proud. And they really were exquisite. He's what I'd call an advanced photographer. When he gets behind the lens, he knows exactly (or almost exactly) what he intends to shoot and how to shoot it. It a skill 99.9-percent of the world's picture takers would love to posses. There is probably almost as much art in how he sets up a picture as in what that picture shows. Almost. But not quite.

Anyway, one thing that struck me this morning as our small group looked at his pictures was how each person saw something a little bit different in those photos. Some people noticed things that even Steve himself didn't notice when he took the shots. There was one photograph but many elements to that photograph. This is part of the beauty of art. It is deeper than just the surface, like a vein of gold deep within its mountain home. We intend one thing when we create an artwork, maybe two if we're resourceful, but even we, the artists, cannot see everything beautiful or unique about our art. It takes a community sometimes to bring about the greater beauty in art. That's something I noticed this morning.