Being vs. Making
Being a good person and making good art are two different goals. You can be a good person who makes lousy art, or you can be a sinful person who makes aesthetically pleasing art. These two goals are governed by two different virtues: The Virtue of Prudence and the Virtue of Art.
A person who posesses Prudence is able to make good decisions about his or her life and act upon them. A person who posesses the Virtue of Art has acquired the habits and discipline to create art.
God is pleased by all virtue and discipline, but working on the Virtue of Prudence in yourself is the more important of the two virtues. It is more important to the holiness of your soul. However, creating ugly art in the name of God makes the beauty of God harder for other people to understand, therefore it is the Christian artist’s responsibility to continually perfect his or her skills - beautifying the world in the name of God.
Hopefully you will strive to be both - a beautiful person who makes beautiful art.
Feb 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Brother Burke,
I’ve never heard of the virtue of art. I’m interested in reading about it. Where can I look to get some go info on it? Peace.
Colonel4God
Feb 12th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Read about the Virtue of Art here: http://www2.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/art4.htm in “Art and Scholasicism by Jacques Maritain.
Feb 19th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Thanks