American novelist and playwright Cormac McCarthy said in a 2009 Wall Street Journal interview, "Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don't have something in the back of your head driving you nuts, you may not do anything." I think this is true on different levels and in differing circumstances. Creative work arises out of great human suffering or to express and heal deep emotional trauma. It also rises from an altruistic dreamer expressing their vision or opinion of an unobtainable utopian world. But more often than not, for a landscape artist, creative works come from people stopping to admire God's creation.
We have become a society addicted or enslaved to likes, shares, tweets, and every form of white noise designed to dumb down the human spirit for the fleeting immediate gratification of a dopamine hit. So many are too self-absorbed, or self-aggrandizing, or just plain selfish to stop and ponder the magnificence of the world around us. In his Meditations, the stoic philosopher and emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, believed one should "Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." It is with this quixotic lens I use when I stop to look at God's masterpiece. I am amazed by mechanisms built to turn a flagellum on a single virus or the complex chemical and enzymatic balance of our human bodies, or the hydrodynamics that water and nutrients are transported through giant sequoias and redwoods, and the physics occurring in star nurseries and the vastness of space. Everything from a single-celled organism's complex genome to the vastness of galaxies and space has a meticulous thoughtful, and purposeful design, which necessarily infers a master designer. Anatole France perhaps summarizes my perspective of heaven and earth best when he wrote, "What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance?"
Our world is speeding up every year and becoming more hectic, angry, and ugly. Few stop to stand in awe of selfless kindness and beauty throughout creation. We have become too distracted by life's needs, too many useless msocial feeds, and societal expectations. I find observing beautiful landscapes, exquisite sculptures, selfless acts of kindness, and the infinite stars inspirational motivation to mimic my God's creation. The splendor to be observed inspires me to pick up a brush, pastel stick, or pencil in an effort to represent the the natural art all around us, masterfully painted each moment of every day He has given us in this life.
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