The Patient Artist

“Life is Short, Art is Long”

This saying was displayed in the green room of my high school theatre. As young thespians, we were held to an expectation to create art upon the stage, art to be remembered. We would practice until it hurt, study our characters in depth, train our voices to be heard, as well as convey the type of person we were portraying.

All in the name of “Art”.

Creating art in our writing is just as worthy as the many hours an actor develops his character to produce live art on stage. And in Christian writing, we not only hope our art will be forever remembered—like a Shakespeare tragedy or the massive painting of the Sistine Chapel—we hope our art will point to the eternal God Who will never be forgotten.

An actor can memorize his lines and give them clearly on the stage. Or he can embrace them, create new ways to portray them, design the character's facial expressions, tones, reactions. A writer can write a good story. Or he can paint pictures with words, create vivid places, stir the soul of the reader with brilliant twists and turns. Create a masterpiece.

As an aspiring writer, it helps me to remember the above saying. It puts up speed bumps in my mind so I practice patience in my craft. To miss the opportunity to pour art on the page of a novel, is as sad as an actor whose performance is forgotten by the time the curtain closes.

Life is short...it runs away from us, and we are spun around in circles, breathless and unsure how we could ever get anything done in such limited time...

but...

Art is long...it will engrave itself in the heart of the beholder, and press its message into their very Spirit.