“Art imitates nature,” Aristotle once claimed. Yet, more often than not, art touches a space beyond our physical world—from the ecstasy of love to the twilight of grief, and indeed, to the very contours of the divine. There is something undeniably spiritual about the whole business. As the philosopher Michel Henry wrote, “At its onset, all art is sacred, and its sole concern is the supernatural. This means that it is concerned with life—not with the visible but the invisible.”
Life. What a tantalizingly nebulous word for the muse of every artist. It’s fitting that this “supernatural” force is the most natural thing we do, but something we understand very little. (This is our first time being alive, after all.)
Besides the activity of life, the next most natural activity is making. This occupation has permeated every culture in every era of history. Even if our business cards don’t read “artist,” we’re all in the industry of creation: musical compositions and quarterly reports, data plots and sharp puns, academic essays and pancake breakfasts….
In this issue, we explore the human impulse to create. Our project rests on two premises. First, we are all the workmanship of a great Artist, who made us in His image (Eph. 2:10, Gen. 1:27). Second, good art has power beyond itself. When art imitates the visible to its saturation point, it becomes a mirror through which we begin to see the invisible, however dimly.
As you experience the creative works presented here, may you discover something true about the Life behind our art.
In Christ,
Madeleine Roberts
Editor-in-Chief, Cana
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