Life After Art

I recently finished Matt Appling's Life After Art: What You Forgot about Faith after You Left the Art Room. It brought back so much nostalgia for me from my elementary school days! Ever since kindergarten, I loved art; it was always my favorite time of the week. Appling repaints these elementary school memories to illustrate his points about what we've forgotten about art and faith since leaving school.

Appling argues that all children are artists, we are all naturally born to create because we are made in God's image and God is a creator. The challenge however, is to remain an artist as you become an adult. He paints a picture of the epidemic of lost creativity that pervades society and a world without beauty. We live our lives with a "good enough" mentality, forsaking excellence and embracing low standards. We limit ourselves and fear failure. But when we overcome these things, we can "remember" the lessons we forgot after we left the art room and embrace our role as creators of beauty wherever we're at in our lives.

Final Thoughts: 

I really enjoyed the book, but I felt that it was not written for me; it was written for a very specific audience--adults who don't necessarily consider themselves "artistic" or "creative" and have experienced what it is like to be in an art room or art class. I think those who have never been in an art class/room (home-schoolers primarily) would have more trouble relating to the imagery Appling draws from to illustrate his points. The creative types (like myself) who pick up the book for its title may find that they already know and practice what Appling has to say about the significance of creativity in our lives and how it relates to our faith in God. 

Artists can definitely appreciate Appling's perspective on art, beauty, and faith in this world, but for us creatives, he's very much "preaching to the choir." But I'd recommend it to other Christians who want to gain a better understanding of the role of creativity in our lives.

Image Credit: Photo by LexnGer used under a Creative Commens attribution-noncommercial license.