Art is the Veil

Over on Instagram, the account named @makersandmystics posted a quote. It read,

“When the clergy fail in their first task of understanding the symbols of which they are guardians, one is forced to feel that only artists are left to do this spiritual exploration for us.” - Joseph Campbell Thou Art That

I understand that many people do not come from a liturgical background. I wasn’t raised that way, but the idea behind the quote is interesting nonetheless and I got to thinking.

Does art really function as a spiritual exploration? What function does it have in the lives of those who believe that we are just biochemical entities responding to biochemical stimuli and physics? Is the desire to create just another way to make us “happy?”

Is art just a humanist feel-good activity?

I don’t think so. I believe that what we surround ourselves with matters. It matters not just because it may make us feel better, but because our lives have purpose, meaning. If the only “meaning” is to do good and to be happy (existentialism and humanism), then art - and basically everything else - has very little actual meaning or purpose outside of ourselves.

For many, having no meaning except being personally happy is good enough. I wonder about the conflicts that we could discuss if everyone behaved that way. Would courtesy (for example) even exist? Why is courtesy important today? Just because it makes us feel good? Why should it make us feel good? I may be the only one questioning the merit of just being happy to know I exist. (Why should I be happy about existing?)

After all, we are told that humanity is a way for the universe to know itself, that we’re made of stardust. That is supposed to be poetic. That is supposed to make our hearts bloom with … I don’t know what. It is as if believing that we are wonderous accidents is supposed to make us feel better as we spin in empty, dark, cold space.

Here is all I know:

I sense an “other” in the world. A “stranger.” There is a desire to communicate with this Stranger, and art is one way I have found to attempt to learn the language it speaks - to transcribe what I hear.

I do not practice oil painting to be happy. In fact, it is in many ways a terrible job because I have a lot of angst about stuff that no one else cares about. I spend a lot of time and energy and money and there is little to no return. The finished product only matters if I feel that I have learned a little of the Stranger’s language - if I have learned a word or translated a phrase.

This leads me back to the opening quote. The instant I finished reading it, something I hadn’t thought about in ages flashed into my mind. The account from the book of Exodus where Moses, having stood with the Lord, brings the replacement tablets with the commandments on them. Moses was alone with the Lord for 40 days and nights, and when he descended, his face shown with intense, glowing light to such an extent that the people could not look upon him, so he veiled his face. This is what came to my mind:

“…Truth as a person needs to be approached differently. Art is the veil that gives us a form to behold.”

Art is the sheet we drape over the intangible to see the invisible.

It is the veil we hold up to the incomprehensible to grasp the impossible.

Art can be a simple, feel-good activity, but I believe it is forever linked with the meaning of life. Not that art is the meaning, but that art is a way of listening, of learning, and - at its best - a way of praying, which is another way of breathing.

Just this morning I was defeated by the overwhelming task ahead of me and how far behind I was. My work has been bad recently, and I have hard deadlines, so I was really down. I was thinking about why I even continue to paint. Why go on working when there is little to no reward - especially the kind that I can turn to my wife and say, “Ta-da! Income! Aren’t you glad!?”

I thought about how people from every era have prayed and prayed and it looks … silly. It looks foolish to speak into the air and hope for or expect something to change. We pray, we work. We persist in praying, and we persist in working.

Why? I will only speak for myself. Jesus is unlike any other person, and he prayed. He prayed regularly and taught others to do the same. Therefore, having the best human as an example, I will keep on praying even though “thoughts and prayers” has become a sneer.

And my paintings? We’ll see. I have no idea.

1 Corinthians 13:12

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.