The Art Date

 After the church meeting, after lunch and definitely after our Sunday afternoon nap, we were finally ready to go.  Our destination was the Tamarack for an art date.  Over the last few years Diana and I have made it habit to attend the openings of local art exhibits.  In order to share the experience we have invited friends and have forced family members to join us.  Along the way we have grown in our appreciation of art, enjoyed some tasty reception treats, engaged the community and met new artists. 

We stepped into the gallery to the welcome sound of an acoustic guitar filling the room.  Patrons studied their favorite pieces, others mingled with artists.  Oils and mixed media, abstract and impressionistic, sculptor and watercolor adorned the walls.  Each had a unique story.  A large charcoal drawing of a miner portrayed the artist’s father and was drawn with coal from his mine.  A stylized wooden chair was made from trees destroyed by the derecho a couple of summers ago. 

The fresh fruit of blackberries and pineapple along with smoked cheese, wheat crackers and sweet dip added a nice touch to the exhibit.  As is customary we selected some of our favorite art pieces.  Diana chose a fisherman wading in a shimmering stream, its qualities enhanced from a distance.  My selection was an oil painting with a colorfully exaggerated blue sky.  

Any art date deserves an artful thought of course.  Here’s one from State of the Arts by Gene Edward Veith Jr. “Properly considered, the arts are inestimable gifts of God.  They can enrich our lives.  The Bible itself sanctions the arts, describing the gifts God has given to artists and recounting in living detail works of art that were ordained by God to manifest His glory and enrich His people.

“If Christians can develop a taste for artistic excellence and spiritual depth, if they can learn to reject the superficialities of both the pop culture and the established art world, and if they will patronize artists of merit, then they will strengthen both the church and the arts and leaven the entire culture.”

After a latte and a chocolate raspberry coffee in the courtyard we walk past the gardens, down the steps and started home.  Soon and very soon we’ll be off our next art date.