The process of creating art, expression, and interpretation is often nurtured by passion and persistence. The Prophet Joseph Smith once observed that “when you feel pure intelligence flowing unto you it may give you sudden strokes of ideas . . .” While much of the inspiration I’ve developed and refined through the years has come incrementally, there are also occurrences when I experience “sudden strokes of ideas” in my mind and heart. This phenomenon of contemplative creativity stems from what many would describe as “the whisperings of the Spirit.”
One of my distant ancestors, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, once commented, “I love you for the part of me that you bring out.” True mastery demands patience, perseverance, and passion that transcend setbacks, strictures, and refinements. Unlike many of our friends in the sciences, artists are often frustrated by defining or articulating their trade. So often, the processes of designing, developing, and creating are known to them only, and further attempts to outline and replicate their work are stymied again and again. Little wonder that a frustrated Ammon in the Book of Mormon haltingly noted that he could not give expression to “the smallest part which I feel” (Alma 26:16).
Seeking Improvement
It comes as no surprise to many artists that their work goes unheralded, and the adulation of accomplishment is silently celebrated in the innermost recesses. Most artists enjoy their craft independently from critics, sophists, and naysayers. While many are their own greatest fan, they are simultaneously their own sharpest critics. The educator William Lyon Phelps once noted, “…I love to teach. I love to teach as a painter loves to paint, as a musician loves to play, as a singer loves to sing, as a strong man rejoices to run a race. Teaching is an art so great and so difficult to master that a man or woman can spend a long life at it, without realizing much more than his limitations and mistakes, and his distance from the ideal. But the main aim of my happy days has been to become a good teacher, just as every architect wishes to be a good architect, and every professional poet strives toward perfection.”
Meditation
While the best artists appreciate steady hands, God works best with quiet minds. Ancient prophets like Nephi, Enos, and others often referenced their consistent practice of meditation practice. The phrase “search, ponder, and pray” so often gives short shrift to the “ponder” portion of receiving revelation. Many artists confess that their ideas came in the silence of the night. Drawing from an intrapersonal intelligence often takes time to silence, train, and focus the mind within contemplative practices. If God would use our hands to further His work, He should expect that His children would “be still” drawn out to Him in prayer, ponderings, and meditative methods.
Those who achieve greatness are no strangers to hard work. Stretching and toil soften soil that sprouts seeds of progress. A law both in nature and self-mastery is that force and inertia move objects, tasks, and souls forward. While these processes are not easily clustered into rote checklists, it is only fair to burgeoning and eager pupils that they are given protocols and strategies that have demonstrated effectiveness in the conception, development, and design within creative frameworks.
To those who are asking the essential question, “What lack I yet?” consider the following twofold principles that often provide fruitful and satisfying yields for those engaged in the creative process.
Using Contemplative Practices
Dr. Arthur Zajonc, who is a renowned authority on contemplative practices, suggests prayer as part of this meditative process. He said, “The prayer may be recited silently or aloud, but in all cases with full attention to the words and thoughts spoken. As with the tempo of poetry, we slowly and patiently live into the words and thoughts of the prayer as completely as possible” (When Knowing Becomes Love: Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry, 2009, p. 59). Turning our thoughts, our desires, and our souls upward in conscientious prayer and meditation fosters fertile soil for seeds of growth and development. Begin each session within the creative process by asking the Lord to use your hands to create and further His work.
Many artists begin their creative process by asking for guidance and discipline from sacred and/or spiritual sources. Zajonc further observed, “In all traditions of meditation, moral preparation is preliminary to everything else” (p. 62). There are heavenly tutorials awaiting those who are willing to climb to the top of “mountains” to hear them (1 Nephi 18:3). Not all who want to hear the still small voice are willing to experience the perspiration that so often precedes inspiration. This brings us to the second principle—toil.
Toil and Endurance
Henry David Thoreau famously observed that “the cost of a thing is the amount of . . . life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run” (Walden, Economics, p. 280).
Elder Henry B. Eyring further explained, “The good works that really matter require the help of heaven. And the help of heaven requires working past the point of fatigue so far that only the meek and lowly will keep going long enough. The Lord doesn’t put us through this test just to give us a grade; he does it because the process will change us” (Waiting Upon the Lord, September 30, 1990). While the creative process is in many ways its own reward, it also proves capricious when trifled with. Creators find that impatience and hastiness are promptly punished as more than one artist has added a final stroke when stamina stemmed and fatigue frustrated what was once a promising piece.
Working “past the point of fatigue” should not suggest that we “run faster than we have strength” (Mosiah 4:27). Rather, this should be understood as a demonstration of due diligence and endurance. Demonstrate to yourself and others that your work of art was indeed work.
I hope promising artists will continue to find expression and instrumentation sufficient to explore and explain their views, their hopes, and their vision. Often, that inner still small voice is quelled by the battering of self-perceived doubts and deficiencies. However, like all things eternal and all things beautiful, art keeps finding footings strong enough to allay apprehensions and endure past mote and mire to fashion tabernacles, temples, and towers reaching ever upward. Never let the barking and bugling of adversaries deteriorate the quiet encouragement of those who give expression to the stirrings of the soul. Keep creating, my dear friends. Eternity is heralding your craft, guiding your hands, and lifting your vision.
Joseph A. Browning
Dr. Joseph A. Browning lives in LaBelle, Idaho, and works as a seminary and institute teacher for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his wife, Shanna, have six children. Brother Browning received his PhD in Instructional Design in 2016. His current assignment as a seminary teacher is to coordinate special education methods, protocols, and pedagogies within seminaries and institutes for the Idaho East Region. He loves the outdoors, going on dates with his wife, and spending time with his family.
