[Book Review] For Glory and For Beauty by Kirk Richards and Stephen Gjertson

Following my artist block and suggestion from Deborah Secor, I’ve ordered and read For Glory and For Beauty: Practical Perspectives on Christianity and the Visual Arts.  The book is still available at this website and is cheaper than buying it from Amazon.  If you are a Christian and are wondering whether your art is aligned with Christian principles, this is a very authoritative book.  Every chapter has scriptures that reminds you what God wants from us and the authors flesh out what is good fine art and what is not. Each page has 2-3 black and white or color reproductions of works from masters, many with biblical themes but some are still life and nature.  Impressionistic and Modernistic periods are included in discussions of how they failed in educating new artists and why their art fail the Holy test.

The authors describe what is a proper art education, what is the goal of fine art and they give pointers on what is excellence in art.  By the end of 174 glossy pages, you will know what not to paint.  Having said that, the book focuses only on fine art.  The authors did not discuss the role of imagination and its subset, fantasy art nor illustration work which I am most interested in.  I’ve written to Stephen Gjertson for his input on that area and the following is his reply.

Art and Christians

With regard to my artist block, I want to thank Deborah Secor for sharing her 30 years of insight as a professional artist and how she feels as a Christian artist.  I also want to thank Mary (Flycatcher from Wetcanvas) for sending me the link to “Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists 1999.”  The Pope urged Christian artists to tap into the very rich Gospel for inspiration.

Here are a few more resources that are worth reading.

• Leanne Benfield Martin has a blog called Christians in the Arts and she interviewed authors and wrote book reviews.
• Philip G. Ryken has written a book called Art for God’s Sake and here is an article he penned regarding the subject.
• Francis Schaeffer has written a 64 page book called Art and The Bible and from the comments at the online store site, you could get a flavor of his perspective.  See especially comments on page 2.

Added Sept 5, 2013: Thank you to Deborah for two more references on art and Christianity:

• The works and words of Makoto Fujimura
• For Glory and For Beauty by Kirk Richards and Stephen Gjertson

Artist block when confronted by His Glory

Recently, I have been having a hard time putting images on paper and the more I dwell in His Word and the bible, the more constrained I feel.  Today, I wrote to Deborah Secor, a renowned pastelist, founder of the Pastel Journal, author of painting manuals and a long time instructor for her advice.  I hope that anyone who feels the same way would find our communication useful.  Thank you, Deborah, for allowing me to share your encouragement with my readers.

Deborah,

We don’t communicate a lot but once or twice, I posted in gouache and some other threads we happened to be at together.

The reason I am writing is because last November, I’ve been diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and they gave me 3-4 weeks. Since then, with a targeted drug, and the Lord’s Grace, I am improving daily and my cancer cells are lower. My art has always been monsters, created mutants, landscape that are dark atmospherically and now, after throwing out all the books that have bad influences, except James Gurney’s, I am at a loss what else to draw.