The Death of Creativity in the Age of Distraction
In general, I enjoy the creative arts. I’ve always had an appreciation for craftsmanship whether it’s musical or artistic, or whatever it might be. There’s something about watching a person sit down and create something incredible out of the ordinary that inspires marvel and wonder in me. Whether it’s a painting at the DIA, or a simple piece of yarn woven into something greater than the sum of its parts, I am always impressed with craftsmanship.
Though should we be surprised? This marvel should point us back to the first Creator, who took mundane mud, breathed His life into it, and out of that creative moment produced the firstfruits of his creation: mankind. I don’t wonder that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree…we have the breath of the Creator in us, and so we create.
Given that I enjoy art, I’ve also been to a number of art fairs, exhibits, and galleries. And it was a few months ago at an art fair that a pattern started appearing to me…a lot of the art is bad. Like let us please be honest, bad bad. Where’s the skill? Where’s the “wow how did you do this, I am so impressed?” kind of art? I felt like I was gazing through a lot of mediocrity though my eyes were seeking mastery. (I’m being a bit dramatic here lol)
Granted, not everyone is going to be the next Rembrandt. But sometimes I feel like we’re toying the line between art and plain junk. Let’s be real. I love antiques, and I go antique shopping all the time–and to compare the quality of the craftsmanship from even 100 years ago to the stuff we see today, what we see today is of poorer quality and skill than it’s ever been. Now, there are a number of economic factors and design/art movements at play here that have changed things over the years—I don’t deny that—but compare a chest of drawers with its intricate hand-carved details and its dovetailing to the IKEA-esque stuff we put in our homes today…it speaks for itself.
Mark Sayers in his “Rebuilders” podcast mentioned something interesting, he talks about how Britain in the 1970s was facing similar economic problems as we are today: inflation, economic burnout, general societal unrest. But what’s missing from 2023 that wasn’t missing in the 1970s is the art. People looked around the state of the world and instead of detaching, they created. The 1970s was a time of lots of new art, new music, new architecture, and new ways of thinking. Not all of them proved to be useful (or enduring) in the long run, but while the 70s became a time of creation, the 2020s has proven itself as a cultural moment punctuated by reruns, remakes, and nostalgia. Where’s the new art? The nouveau building movements? The new birth of creative energies?
We are experiencing a unique death of creativity and skill in our generation.
Why? I think it’s because we’re distracted. To be creative we need silence, we need solitude, we even need long uninterrupted periods of time in which we can practice and hone our skills and get better. No painter gets better if he paints once every few months. He doesn’t get better if he picks up his paintbrush and every few minutes or so goes to check what’s on his phone.
It is the diligent discipline and practice of a skill that produces better art, and more importantly, mastery.
Are we so distracted by the busyness of the world around us – this 24/7 cycle of constant entertainment that we don’t work on the skills necessary to create beautiful things?
What Michangelos are we missing today because they’re too busy doom-scrolling through Reels? What Beethovens are we missing because the constant “pings” of notifications are interrupting their creative time of work? Supposedly it takes about 23 minutes to get immersed back fully into a task after you’ve been distracted. (I say this, and I just had about 6 new iMessages pop up on my desktop notifications, case in point).
In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell writes that the key to any sort of mastery and expertise in a subject, you need a minimum of 10,000 hours of good practice, that’s the “magic number of greatness.”
Don’t get me wrong, the impulse of creativity will always be there. I believe that as imagers of the living God, there will always run a streak of artistry and creative energy in us…but are we disciplined enough to hone it and to become true masters? To achieve that artistic greatness?
Ex. 35:30-35
Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. 34 And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
God gave Bezalel the skill and the talent, but I would wager a bet that when God told Moses about Bezalel’s calling, that it wasn’t the first time he had picked up a chisel. He was a skilled craftsman who had honed his skill over many long hours of discipline, and therefore was ready to be used in beautiful ways by God in creating the objects that would be used in worship. And I think this can even be proved by Ex. 35:34 where God also gifted these men with the ability to teach these skills to others. Teachers by definition are people who have worked and become skilled in their crafts.
God is the source of all beauty, the noble things, the lovely things, the admirable things (Phil. 4:4-9), and I think he delights just as much as we do in creating beautiful things out of nothing, because all that we do to the glory of God will end up honoring him in the end. Be it a good meal, be it a ceramic pot, be it a new piece of music.
What skill, what gift, what creative impulse do you
possess that you have felt God calling you to work on?
How can we bring life, truth, and beauty to this world in a
day and age that is marred by death, fear, and destruction?
I think for further reading, Exodus 35:4-29 was a beautiful moment where God’s people came together to use their creative skills and services to the glory of God.
This is the call of the Christian. And in my own small way, this newsletter is my own contribution.
Blessings to you all!
Commentary:
Malcolm Gladwell is hands down one of my favorite authors, his book “Outliers” is a book that really made me think about how God places people in unique points of time that offer us opportunities we’ve never had before…but we have to take hold of those opportunities and put the work in too. It’s a two-sided deal. Read the book and let me know what you all think!
I also want to point out that I don’t exclusively consider old European art as the only form of superior art or “mastery”. But I realize the examples used are very Euro-centric, mea culpa.
