Beyond “self-expression”
The first thing that pops into my head when I sit down to write posts or emails is “the people seeing these posts or receiving these emails may not even read them” or “people receive so many emails why would they open mine?” I’m being completely honest and transparent with you. I hesitate because if it’s not worth your time I’m going to work on it until it’s more than good enough to send to you—and it takes me a good while to write something I feel great sending you. I know there's a chance you enjoy reading our emails, and you may even think, “don’t worry about what others think just write from the heart and let people decide if they like it or not.” I agree. That’s another thought I have recycling over and over to remind myself that on both sides of this digital world, there are two real people, the sender and the receiver, the writer and the reader. And that’s the way we want it. We hope and desire for as real a connection as possible between two or more people. I’m old enough to remember writing letters (pen, paper, envelope, and stamp!) to friends and family. I even added thoughtful doodles along the margin that complemented the writing. The envelopes were also decorated with cheerful marks that showed my personal touch. My DNA (saliva) was added to the stamp before they made them into stickers! That’s how we want our posts and emails to you to feel—like a letter from a friend.
We understand that AI is helpful for many people. It has helped me often enough. But I have decided to step back from using it as a replacement and substitute for my heartfelt thoughts in writing. From her on [we] will limit the use of AI to just organizing ideas already provided, and a grammar check for punctuation, spelling, etc.
Switching gears a bit to point out that this is what we believe we have curated in our second edition of Revelations of The Artist—a collection of authentic work and words from artists of the Christian faith. Why is this important and why do we believe this may be worth your time will lead to the same answer. The work and words in both editions of Revelations of The Artist go beyond self-expression. You may or may not be an artist but your work must go beyond you—even in solitude and quiet reflection the inner work will eventually manifest itself. This reality reminds me of words from Makoto Fujimura’s book Art is:
“Art is awareness. Art is being made aware of our world, full of wonderment and sorrows. Art is an expression beyond “self-expression,” a path toward uncovering beauty in complexity, mysteries, and even the darkness of the unknown.”
This is the sole purpose of Revelations of The Artist—to clear a pathway of ongoing conversations towards uncovering, revealing beauty in the complexities, mysteries, and even the “darkness of the unknown.” We really hope this is worth your time. Of course, if at any point you don’t want to receive future insights and news about ROTA, you can always unsubscribe. But if by chance you want more artist insights and creative inspiration for your life and work, we are here for you.
In light of offering inspiring words and authentic work, we are offering an 10% off any ROTA book for the month of June. All you have to do is use the following code at checkout: GIFTOFJUNE
I look forward to sharing what revelations were discovered this week in our next email. A sneak peek into our next email is this little guy—and no, our newsletter is not endorsed by, affiliated with, or sponsored by The Walt Disney Company.
1928 Mickey Mouse, Public Domain
Thanks for reading,
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