There is enough noise around us in our cities and our media, as well as visual stimuli and chaotic soundscapes that invade our homes and workplaces. And anywhere we go there is a radio station playing music and there’s no way to shut it off… too many voices speaking out to us, uninvited, arrogant and boastful, mechanically enticing us with words and images. They vie for our attention, our devotion, our time and resources.

Because Arts call forth that which is most alive in us, the natural and the spiritual, connecting us to the essence of who we are, and because it bypasses any barrier and touches the very skin of our souls, arts are used by the powers of this world to try and inlfuence, even shape the masses in a way that is predictable and yeld a world that will function in the way they want it to. If they could. And so artists are the ones hired to create the marketing tools of what we now culturally refer to as “the Matrix.” While our culture is a testimony to the mind-boggling talents we are blessed with, it is also a landscape wherein the heart and soul of most of the work we are exposed to is designed to illicite a response from our heart that will make us reach for out wallet and assent.

I would argue that this is basically violating an unspoken oath that artists should be aware of, if they would but turn their heads away form the voices that keep enticing them to serve a system that is heartless, cold and calculating. The sheer power and the edge inherent to art and artistic ability calls the artist to a level of accountability: “Not only do we have gifts, we are also a gift to our people.” There should be integrity…

 A NEED FOR INTEGRITY

The way we use our talents speak of how we view ourselves and the world, and can also reveal where we are weak when it comes to serving through our giftings, when we actually should be strong and blaze a trail. It is my belief that we would do well to submit our giftings to God and let Him work in us what He would then inspire through us. As we create, we are created. In that sense, I think we need to recapture the essence of the artistic gifting in order to open the way for Art that will truly be healing the nations.

But Arts is also used differently. It is a balm for many, a canvas that reveals the inner dynamics which words cannot express, hidden past traumas suddenly find a voice through mediums that do not use words, but colors, sounds, movements, images, and various materials of expression. Because many of us have experienced traumas at ages that are pre-verbal and all we had to receive and process these events were emotions, and defense mechanisms like withdrawal, numbness, dissociation. And so there should be integrity in our craft, because we have the power to contribute in helping people get in touch with the deeper parts of themselves, where the sacred and fragile wounded self still hides in the shadows, hoping and praying to be found, so that healing could come and freedom experienced at a deeper level then ever, and often, for the very first time.

And so, beside paying bills through our the reasonable exercise of our giftings, our creative journey should mirror our own human journey because then, we have something of even more value to share. And that is the path I favor. And I owe everything to the Creator, who constantly speaks to us through His works.

MUSIC

Music can create a blanket of rest, a virtual space within our environment, reveal emotions, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. For those who pray, meditate or journal; for those who mourn, and those in search of healing; for those who enjoy creative arts, be they young or old… for all of these and more, instrumental music can lead the soul to a state of sacred intimacy with the Divine.

The absence of words gives listeners room to be in a heart-to-heart with themselves. This “relative” silence already allows our emotional space to be inhabited differently. There, in this uncovered silence, the soul perceives her own existence. the rustling of its wings.

The inner balance of chaos can be explored when music and the Arts speak beyond words… What greater gift can you give someone than to contribute to helping them make sense of who they are, process their reality and find healing?

ANDRE LEFEBVRE – 2005