Beauty And The Incarnation

I've always been attracted to the arts, music and photography in particular, but painting also.  Visiting the Louvre in Paris and the Museo del Prado in Madrid in 1998, as well as the Uffizi in Florence in 2006 and the Vatican in 2010, gave me a good introduction and appreciation for great art.  But I don't think I needed to visit any of these great centres of art for me to appreciate it.  I've always appreciated good art.

Perhaps part of the reason I like good art is because, like C. S. Lewis and Roger Scruton argue, I believe that beauty is objective (this is why Lewis states, for example, that people go for vacations near beaches with beautiful white sand and crystal clear water, rather than an industrial scrapyard) and worthy of our pursuit.

But more than that, I think that being drawn to beauty is just part and parcel of being human: being made by, for, and in the image of a Creator who made the universe a beautiful place, because He himself is all that can be described as Beautiful.  So being attracted to beauty is normal: to be human is to be drawn to beauty.

Where am I going with this?  Oh right, my painting experience.

I've had two lessons in painting, and have really enjoyed both.  I felt renewed, refreshed, and re-energized afterwards.  Something spiritual happens inside of me when I express myself on canvas.  I don't understand it, but I believe it.  

I wonder if it has to do with the Incarntation: God created matter.  Matter was created good and after the Fall, it was redeemed by God in Christ through the incarnation.  Matter is the means for an encounter with God (thus, the sacraments of the church).

Anyways, here is my very small contribution thus far towards appreciating God's beautiful world.  Here is my contribution towards beautifying it.  Here's my expression of soul-healing and intimacy with God.