Rev. Melinda Giese, Minister of Discipleship & Pastoral Care
What are your earliest memories of creating art? Did you paint or draw? Dance? Build elaborate scenes with play dough or blocks? Make up stories or songs? If you think back to your childhood, I’m sure you can remember many of these activities. In preschool and kindergarten, we spend a lot of time creating in order to learn. We build coordination and imagination while also enjoying the fun of making shapes out of clay and gluing pieces of macaroni onto colored construction paper.
Unfortunately, by the time we get to middle school, art and music classes become electives rather than requirements. We pick up on the message that art is fine for children or the very talented, but it is no longer necessary as we get older. Or even worse, we begin to think of art as a waste of time. Many of us also discovered (or were told) that we weren’t “good” at art, so we stopped making it for that reason.
In fact, research shows that far from being a waste of time, art provides us with many mental and emotional health benefits. For instance, creating visual art lowers stress and increases relaxation. It can help those with depression, anxiety, and cancer and has been linked to better mental functioning for older people. If you’re interested in reading more about this research, the Harvard Medical School published a brief article here.
Most importantly, we don’t have to think we are “good” at art to reap these benefits. Working creatively engages our brains and bodies regardless of the finished product. Over repeated artistic attempts, we also might learn to let go of our critical judgments and comparisons, re-discovering the joy of making art we experienced as children.
As Pastor Cara said in her sermon on Sunday, humanity was made in the image of God. Our God is a creator, and thus, so are we. It also strikes me that in Genesis 1, God’s judgment on everything that God makes is to bless it and to call it “good.” Many parents similarly praise and appreciate the art of their children. We proudly display all kinds of art on our refrigerators and encourage more. I wonder why we so easily bless the artistic efforts of our children and grandchildren, but struggle to do the same for our own? If all the ways humans paint and sew, write and cook, knit and sculpt share in the creative energy of God, there must be goodness there as well. Perhaps the very act of creating is good, freeing our imaginations and helping us envision new possibilities.
If you’re curious about how you might cultivate more creativity into your life, this article will get you started.