Coffee Shop Artist

I was in Arizona when I went into the local Coffee house for a treat. I noticed a woman sitting outside in the warm winter afternoon breeze guitar in hand. She was sipping something I am sure by her nonchalant way of holding her guitar was elaborate yet sophisticated. I could see the paper in front of her was marked up, scratched out, and re-written, she had to be writing a song. She cradled the pen in her hand  as she wrote down line after line.

A few days later I went into a different Coffee Shop in a different city. Sitting alone at a table was a man, he had curly brown hair wore hipster glasses, skinny jeans and a flannel shirt. He was just scruffy enough that one could see that he could grow a beard, but not enough that he looked like a lumber jack. He was painting. I decided to strike up a conversation while waiting for my Hot Chocolate. His name was Joshua (not Josh, Joshua). And SURPRISE, just like the lady before he was a struggling artist.

So my real question is, what is it about a coffee shop that attracts the artist? This is not the first time I have seen artists in coffee shops. This venue is stereotypical for movies, but why? Is it the 'I am so much more chill than you' atmosphere? Is it the 'I need a place that inspires me' attitude? Does it have something to do with the need for excessive amounts of caffeine? I don't know, but I think I will look into it.

Artist? I don't know the meaning of the word.

The words of Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities are relevant to our society despite their age: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light,it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

The call came, I answered. I felt the glorious pull of divinity tugging at my heart and I knew that from this point forward I would devote my life to wisdom, belief, light, and hope. My calling is ART. Big bold letters that create a word. Create, what I want, no need, to do. 

We are at a point in society when this perfect word has been corrupted, neglected, and trampled on. We have the potential to create art that rivals that of Picaso, DaVinci, Bach, Shakespeare, Mozart, Charles Dickens, Aristophanes, and a myriad of others.  We just have to figure out how.

Aristotle said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

This seems like a good moment to point out that I believe in God. My art is devoted to hime in unique ways. A very wise man said once "God’s purpose for the artist is to inspire, to give us visions of ourselves that we might not otherwise see, to make us better than we would have been. The world is better for the arts... In the quest to achieve greatness in artistic pursuits—whether in painting, dance, music, drama, film, sculpture, or the written word—we should always seek first to achieve God’s purposes." I believe this will all of my heart. He can and will guide us in this delicate, breathtaking journey. Then thorugh his divinity we can create art that will lift, inspire, and change hearts to help make people better than they might have been.

 “All great art is the expression of man’s delight in God’s work, not his own,” John Ruskin

The main problem with what we call art today is that it has lost its soul, its deeper more intimate meanings; so called artists have traded it away for selfishness and personal gain. Are they then fit to cary the title ARTIST? Yet we give it to them with all momentum and vigor as they rip away the vitality of our beloved art.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands put it this way: “The creative act must never become a form of selfish indulgence. There is more to creating than merely establishing the work of the individual. Really, the commitment to be a composer—or an artist or poet—is no less than a commitment to seek that which is divine.”

We must expand our vision of what can be done. If we are going to fill the world with goodness and truth, we need to become true Artists.