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Today’s topic is, What to Do When You’re Not Writing: Cultivating the eye of an artist by Martin Detwiler.

When we sit down at our desks and take up our pens, ready to mark down the next few hundred words, what is the mindset that has filled up all the space on either side of our writing? That is, do we consider ourselves writers, artists –  illumineers of beauty and truth – even when we’re not writing? And if we do, what does that even look like?

Before I begin, I feel obligated to clarify something.

I am not advocating an approach that makes life subservient to art/writing. Our lives are not sieves meant to catch useful, beautiful moments of write-ability and insight. Our lives are worth living on their own account because of our ultimate purpose as reflectors of our God. Rather, the approach I’m advocating is one which sees beauty and truth as worthwhile points of focus which we pursue for their own sake – because they magnify God, not because we can use them in our writing.

The artist is first of all in love with the beauty, and pursues it for its own sake, because of where it points their focus. It is afterwards, through the process of subcreating, that those experiences are translated into art, making them accessible to the many. While it is important to have the technical skill to be able to make that translation effective and powerful, it is paramount that we are pulling from a rich bank of truths we have experienced in the first place, so that our writing will have lasting impact.

With that out of the way, I want to unpack a few ways that we can cultivate the habit of seeing with the Artist’s Eye. This habit is one that extends to all moments of life, a habit that I believe enriches and inspires our writing journey precisely because it is oriented towards the truth and the beauty of the light we reflect in our stories, rather than to the act of writing itself.

1. Silence. I’m putting it first not because I see a distinct order of importance, but because it seems to be the underlying attitude behind most of the other points we’ll be looking at as well. This is similar to meditation, but not quite as intellectual. It’s the habit of stilling one’s internal monologue and looking outside of yourself to see things as they are in themselves. It’s a move away from constant interpretation of what we see, towards intentionally pondering what it is that we are actually seeing. Not a move towards mindlessness by any means. God forbid, actually. That’s not at all what we’re going for.

It’s just a slight alteration of our typical approach to perceiving the world around us, something that I have found allows me to actually see many things I would have overlooked normally. There is an abundance of detail in the world around us, details which hold unique and sometimes hidden beauties.

2. Nature. I have found it most useful to be silent within nature, because of the lack of distractions (compared to social or city settings). The kind of thing I’m looking for when exercising an artist’s vision in nature are the specific ways that nature shouts forth the glory of God, as described in Psalm 19. The natural realm, simply by existing according to its design, brings forth glory to God that is unquenchably loud, according to David. Where is that voice found?

Look. Be silent and look. Maybe it’s just in the way the leaf spirals on its way to the forest floor. Maybe it’s in the mushrooms shelved along yon fallen log. Not to be mystical, but God is in the details. Beauty is in the details. Truth is in the details.

So zoom in. Stop interpreting and classifying for one second, and appreciate the unending intricacies of nature around you. It will cultivate a mood in you to join the chorus which nature sings.

3. Prayer. In the context of prayer, seeking beauty as an artist can be supremely satisfied, because we seek the supreme beauty – God Himself.

Moses’ face shone after seeing the backside of God. During the transfiguration, a similar shining radiated from Christ, and from the clothes he wore. In short, if we are on a search for beauty, and we wish to see it more clearly, let us come to the source and center of supreme beauty, and bask in His presence.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

4. People. As broken, breaking, and breakable as we humans are, it is definitely worth your while to silence your inner monologue and really see people. You’ll begin to notice the quirks that make them unique; by doing so, you might even be able to listen to their stories. At the very least, you will come away with a renewed appreciation for the beauty of the individual, and the brokenness of the individual. This can be done as a form of people-watching, with random people in a social setting. Or it can be done in a far more in-depth manner with your family and friends. Regardless of the level to which you know them, however, the artist searches for the moments of beauty that show up in people’s lives, and the moments where they illustrate or openly express a truth about God, themselves, or the world around them. Being on the hunt and the lookout for this good adds a dimension to our own interactions with them which ought to make us more gracious, understanding, and patient.

5. Self. While it may seem counter-intuitive to search for the beauty in our own internal life, I don’t think it is out of line. It requires the ability to step back from complete immersion in our own thought-life and an alert examination of the way that our minds work – the progression of one thought to another, the interplay of emotions as we transition from one mood to another. All of the small and tiny details of what it means to be human on the inside are important and will help us understand both ourselves and others better. This has the potential to give us great wisdom and interpersonal insight.

As may be obvious, I approach this aspect of being an artist as a thing of identity, rather than function. It is not so much what we do, as much as what we are. So then, many of the qualities that we seek to transfer into our writing are things like wisdom, virtue, discernment – the qualities which allow us to weave the content of transformative stories. We can hone the skill of writing all day long, but unless it comes from within us, the artist, it will simply be good writing. That is why we need something more to inform our writing lives.

6. Art. Last and finally, we can glean many rich nuggets of beauty and truth from the art of others. The reason I put this last is because this is where we often land first, as writers, looking for ways to better our craft. But I wanted to make sure that we thoroughly understand the necessity of being present in every aspect of our own lives, filtering them through the mindset of an artist – someone who is searching for beauty first, because it points them to God; and then artistry second, because it improves their own artistic sensibilities.

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As best you can, it is very helpful to record the results of the Artist’s Eye. Scribbles, notes, doodles, whatever will help you remember and record the observations, questions, and insights that you glean. Make character sketches of those Certain People that you meet who just stand out. Jot down the gist of powerful moments in your lives, or the lives of others. Whatever it is. They don’t have to end up in anything you write. Again, it’s not about developing a story or translating this directly into writing. It’s the mindset.

It is the habit of seeing past the banality of life’s details and looking with the inner eye at the beauty within moments, the hidden stories that lie within – that is what we are going for. Over time, this habit and attitude will enrich your experience of life, and may well give you more consistent inspiration to write. A huge part of writing is thinking, anyway, so this way of life instills that habit across the board, thereby priming your mind.

And then, when it is actually time to sit down and translate experience into artistry, we will be drawing from a full tank.

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Artists are on the hunt for beauty in every area of their lives. Are you?

 

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