The Meaning of Art

So Jesse and I had a discussion about the meaning of art. After reading my last entry, he asked me "What's God doing in Africa?" and numerous other questions about what I meant by my last post and how it relates to the song. Basically, "How can you say that's about a certain subject when it really doesn't look like it has anything to do with that?" Some art, like many photographs, especially Jesse's, are literal. You can take one look at them and know exactly what they are about. Other art, like the collage, is conceptual. You can take one look at it and not have a clue what it's about. I guess the best I can explain it, is that for me, when faced with overwhelming issues, whether personal, or something huge like the AIDS epidemic, I don't know how to talk with God about it. I don't know what to ask Him, what to tell him. The only way I feel like I can make a dent or change in the issue is to physically move my hands and create something. The collage is about asking God to move there, to sing the song over Africa, to make those words truth for that nation. That's how I can say "this is about Africa", but also why I can't really elaborate on it, because in the movement, in the creating, I don't even know what I was saying to God. It's like when people speak in tongues. I doubt they really know what they are saying sometimes, but they know they are having some deep conversation with God about something important. Anyway, here's a short paragraph I had written in my journal earlier this summer as I was struggling through being an artist. (I was pretty ticked that God gave me that gift instead of something more practical and "useful", like medicine or teaching.) In any case, when I pelted God with "why did you make me like this instead of like this?", these are the words that I believe he put into my mouth and is asking me to believe (which I'm still working on):

My painting is a prayer. It hangs on a wall and never stops beckoning to God. It delights and worships and never ceases to adore the Father. It intercedes on behalf of its viewers. It is beautiful.