Faith-Filled Art

Art has always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, if it was at school, at home, or in church listening to the sermon, drawing what the words would look like as a picture. Art has been a way for me to understand what I’m learning, as well as a way to express it in my own unique way. Sometimes it may be scribbles that portray a certain topic and other times it may be a whole piece of art. Typically I am a shy person that does not feel the most comfortable talking to others about my faith. So, I started to draw on a chalkboard at my church and only told one other person that it was me who was creating the drawings every week. As time went on I started telling others and signing my name to the pieces of art that I created each week.

One of my favorite things to do when creating the art that I do is relating it to the seasons or holidays that are coming up, or that are happening. Being able to know what the theme or idea that you are going to be using is very helpful. But it is also great to pick either what you will be hearing during the sermon on the following Sunday. Or maybe whatever I feel like, or if I get inspired by something that I see.

I find ideas either just by starting to draw something and seeing where the lines and shapes take me. I also go to Pinterest and find my inspiration there. While scrolling through Pinterest I find ideas that I like and either put multiple ideas together or change a single thing that I found and wanted to make it my own. By doing this I can make it my very own work and would be able to show one of my interests and talents with the people that I care about and enjoy seeing throughout the week.

After a little more of a year, creating the art that I do for not just my church makes me very excited and happy to show others and give others my art. I love making people happy, and I found out that one way that I can do that is create new things for the people that I care about and what their interests are. That is why I create what I do for my church and for others that don’t either go to my church or maybe they don’t go to church at all. To bring joy to the people that show up either every Sunday or maybe every so often. At least to me I think that it brings them joy, being able to walk into the walkway into the sanctuary and seeing something new on the easel that I put up. I think that it would at least bring me some joy and I hope that it also brings them joy also. 

Being able to bring the joy to others is one thing that I love doing, like I have said earlier, but one of those moments that I think stands out the most to me is when Laura Stone, the District Executive Minister of the South/Central Indiana District of the Church of the Brethren came to my church one day and liked one of my pieces that I had put on the board that I created early that week. She then talked to my grandparents and they asked me if she would be able to take it to her office and frame it and put it on her wall. Of course I said yes, because that is why I like creating new things for people. Bringing joy to the people around me. 

Another reason that I love to create art for the people I care about, myself, or my church is having to focus on one thing and one thing only. Having something to relax while doing after either a long day at school or maybe just a normal summer day that I have nothing else to do except for practice and maybe the slim chance that I have plans to go somewhere. It makes me happy to complete something that I created from start to finish. 

Creating the art that I do makes me be able to learn about my faith in a different way than I would have by just reading either the bible or another book. This can then lead me to being able to share with the people around me what I have learned about faith and what my faith means to me. 

I also think that being able to see the joy in others' faces every Sunday Morning makes me know that my art can affect a person only by drawing something that I think resembles my faith and possibly others' faith also.

By Logan Klein, a high schooler who attends Nettle Creek Church of the Brethren

(Her "Jesus Loves You" picture is hanging in the District Office meeting space in Wabash.)