The Louvre and Musee D’Orsay–Creativity

France is filled with museums and artwork every where we look.  Buildings, statues, fountains, churches, and artists themselves are throughout this country but no where more so than in Paris.

Questions such as:  How much time?  Where to begin? Which painting to pause at, consider, and spend time beyond the quick look/walk?  This one caught my attention.  Satan’s world.  Even the name “Pandemonium” describes perfectly a kingdom so destructive that it swallows up souls.

This particular canvas at Musee D’Orsay is so large I can’t imagine where I’d begin, nor when I’d stop to put my brush down and consider it “finished”.  The colors, the subject matter truly brought me to the cross.  It fills an entire wall.  I wanted to sit near to it as if in doing so, I was near to Christ himself.

It’s easy to see God at work through an artist’s hands as I gaze at numerous famous works of art in these two museums.  I could spend days at each while focusing on one painting at a time.  What was each artist imagining; what was going on in their life at the time; what inspired them?  Though I don’t consider my own artwork in the category such as these artists, as one dabbling with it I realize how many factors influence a particular piece of art.  When I’m angry, frustrated or upset at life, I create one way and when I’m at peace, joyful and content I create differently.  I might try a new style of art or improve upon one I enjoy.  For me, the act itself calls to me to begin.

When I allow God to create through me I am most at peace, time passes without my knowledge, and I can just “be”.  Gardening, cooking or baking, and writing are similar in this creativity but art takes me beyond.  Sometimes I have no idea what I’m going to create as the creation itself does the work for me.  “It” tells me what it will become.  I just follow along.  When I allow myself to “let go” and allow creation to take place without my hindering it, I’m often surprised at the results.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like as the person that created much of what is in these museums.  I’m grateful they chose this path in life.   God either directed their hands or joined with them to create such masterpieces.

We are each beautifully created.  We are told that no two are alike.  There will never be another Debra.  What did God think about as he created me?  Am I serving the purpose He intends me to serve?  Sometimes I panic and think, “what if I miss it?”  What if I fail?  Am I failing now and don’t realize it or am I finally following Him after waiting 60 years to do so?  Only He knows these answers.  Thankfully His grace covers me…I can rest knowing it is He who is finishing this race “in me”.  So I will rest.  I will wait upon the Lord.

When I really understand God as my father in heaven, I touch upon His attributes.  My creativity is simply a childlike reflection of His own.