Art Is...
ill defined
by stammering tongue
or scratchy pen
with halting phrases
inadequate vocabularies
gaping hollow spaces
resonating wonder.

Art Is...
better described
in metaphors~
aesthetic synapses of thought
and sense
that tease and tantalize
and guide to the brink
of reality's great chasms.

Art Is...
best incarnated~
flesh touching flesh
bone answering to bone
mind and heart
dancing to new melodies
and tempos
of a heart and mind
beyond their own.

©Copyright, 2000, by Ethel L. Herr

For the three months that I taught the class about the Bible and the arts, I wrestled with the perennial question:  What is art?

In each lesson, we examined one more facet of the gem we call "art" to see if we could at least get a glimpse of its meaning. 

I found myself writing poems for each facet.  Today I have almost 50 of these little portraits of the wonders of art.  I've put them together and call the collection:
Art Is... Indefinitions for Those Who Wonder

Throughout this website, you will find these poems scattered, some of them accompanied by art work from my friend, Louise Bass, who fell in love with the collection.

Watch this spot for more news about Indefinitions.


 

Let's go to the woods and play with finger paints! 

Art is

a discovery
a fresh wind sighing into the soul
a surprise morsel to shew and savor
a rich full resonance
a hushing spell
an epiphany
creating insatiable appetite for
MORE!  
                        Ethel Herr

*        *        *

When I was 9 years old, I wept, all scrunched up in my "thwarted dream" box, because no matter how hard I tried, everything I drew on paper failed.  I looked at all the successes of my classmates and heard the message clear and plain: 
"You are not an artist!”

Fifty years later I taught a class called “What Does the Bible Say about the Arts?”  I knew I was no expert. So did the people who hired me to teach them. But I had learned that I was an artist, even though my ability to draw was still highly limited.
I now knew that an artist might never draw. She might sing or write or speak~~
those were my arts.

 In the three months my class and I spent finding God’s perspective on one more exhilarating dance floor, I discovered some incredible things~~

about Art~what it is and what it does to change the world

about God~ the Master Artist

about myself~ created in His image and therefore an artist too!

 Today, I scribble on a drawing pad and produce a gentle likeness of a clump of wildflowers
and I hold it up for the world to see.
I now know that while I may never draw a complicated landscape or a heart-tugging portrait of my grandchild, or paint an impressionistic interpretation of some scene that steals my heart, still 
I AM AN ARTIST! 
I’m dancing with pen and voice~ yes even with computer. My whole being is aquiver!  Praise to God the Master who has taught me well!