I thought I wasn't artistic. I thought I didn't know how to appreciate art

For most of my life, I believed I wasn't artistic. I do draw and do art, but I don't do it very well. My work is okay, but it's not great. I don't seem to have a gift for it, and have long been envious of people who could turn a few quick strokes into a masterpiece.

But then I read What Art Does by Brian Eno and Bette Adriaanse.

One idea from the book completely changed how I think about art. Brian and Bette say that everything we do that's necessary is simply survival. Eg: we eat because we need food. We walk because we need to get from one place to another. We build houses because we need shelter.

But everything we do beyond necessity .... that's art.

When I skip instead of walk, that's art. When I paint my nails, that's art. Choosing colours for my walls, arranging furniture, writing a letter, baking a cake, singing in the shower ..... none of those things are essential for survival.

Yet somehow they make us feel more alive. And that's what art seems to do.

It doesn't necessarily solve a problem. It doesn't always increase productivity. Often it doesn't make financial sense. But it reminds us what it feels like to be human.

Art also helps us understand ourselves. Sometimes we don't know what we're thinking until we write it down. We don't know how to express how we're feeling until we put paint to paper. We don't know what we're grieving until a song brings us to tears. We don't know what we're longing for until a film, a poem, or a painting awakens something inside us.

Art gives language to experiences that ordinary conversation often can't. It invites us to slow down, to reflect, to pay attention: to ourselves, to others, and to the world around us. The older I get, the more I realize how much I love art.

I love stories that make me think. I love books that leave me sitting in silence after I've finished the last page. I love music that somehow expresses emotions I couldn't put into words.

And I love a good Korean drama.

I don't need any of these things. But I love them. Because I get invited into another world where I get to participate in moments that I might otherwise never experience.

It's easy to think art is a luxury. Something we enjoy once we've finished all the important things. But perhaps art is one of the important things. God could have made a functional world. A world where every flower looked the same. Where every bird sang the same song. Where sunsets were efficient instead of breathtaking.

Instead, He filled creation with colour, texture, rhythm, flavour, diversity, and delight (Gen 2:9). Creation itself seems to overflow with beauty that serves no purpose except to be enjoyed.

Perhaps that tells us something about the Artist behind it all.

As image-bearers, maybe we were always meant to do the same. To make spaces feel welcoming. To tell stories. To laugh loudly. To wear colours that make us smile. To dance in the kitchen. To write poems no one else may ever read. To skip instead of walk.

These things may not help us survive. But they help us live.

I thought I wasn't artistic. I thought I didn't know how to appreciate it. But perhaps I just had too narrow a definition of art.

Maybe art happens every time we choose beauty over bare necessity. Every time we create rather than merely consume. Every time we reflect instead of rushing. Every time we express something true about who we are. Every time we add a little more goodness, truth, or beauty to the world.

Perhaps we've all been making art all along.

And perhaps that's one of God's greatest gifts: that He created us not only to survive, but to create, to reflect, to express, and in doing so, to become a little more fully alive.