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Ave Explores Series | Art and Architecture | Week 4
Your Art, No Matter How Good, Communicates God to Others
by Ali Hoffman
Five years ago I started an Instagram account, The Oodles of Doodles, as a new year’s resolution to get better at hand lettering. For years, in my personal prayer time I loved to make Scripture look as beautiful as the words. What started as a silly resolution has now turned into a ministry of art, beauty, and marrying the idea that beautiful design can allow the viewer to be brought to a deeper level of wonder and awe.
Hand lettering by Ali Hoffman
Super simple, right? My intended goal wasn’t to convert anyone, force my faith down anyone’s throats, or boast about my skills. It was to share what the Lord was speaking to my own heart and to encourage those viewing that he or she was absolutely loved. In the past five years I have learned many lessons of what it means to be an artist and the weight that carries. Mainly I’ve learned that I have been given unique gifts and talents for now, 2020, than anyone else in the world. There’s a reason why I’m living now and not a hundred years ago, or even a thousand years ago. I was created for now and I reveal a different characteristic of God the Father as Creator. It is also the same for you: Just by your very life you reveal a different facet of God to the world that is needed.
In paragraphs twelve and thirteen of St. John Paul II’s letter to the artists, he speaks about the Church’s need for art and the artist’s need for the Church. It’s a symbiotic relationship that ebbs and flows and communicates to one another. Have you ever been in a truly beautiful church, maybe somewhere in Rome, Vienna, or Assisi? These ancient churches were built to reflect the wonder, awe, and majesty of God and to draw whoever is in attendance into something, namely someone bigger than themselves. I’m not building churches, but I am creating pieces that hopefully are drawing the person into something beautiful.
Hand lettering by Ali Hoffman
So many people have told me that they can’t be artistic because it’s just not for them and that they can’t draw. I respond that they don’t have to be a trained artist to communicate the creative nature of God. I have a four-year-old niece who is just learning to draw. She draws with such dedication that I can’t help but pin all of her artwork on my refrigerator so I can frequently look at them with joy. Would they be considered precious to an art gallery or be worthy of hanging in St. Peter’s in Rome? Probably not (although they are absolutely amazing and an art gallery would be privileged to hang a Madelyn original, in my unbiased opinion). I know that Madelyn is showing how much she loves me through her art. I know that Madelyn isn’t worried that her birds look like pointy Ms, or that her trees are misshapen blobs. I don’t tell Madelyn that she should probably stop creating because her doodles just aren’t good enough. I don’t compare her to a Michelangelo or Giotto painting because horses don’t have nine legs. I just love her.
Because God created you, he has given you a unique ability to communicate to the rest of the world his love, mercy, compassion, and goodness in your own way. Maybe you’re creative in a different field. I have a friend who has the most amazing administrative gifts. She’s an Excel wizard and loves to organize, plan, and execute beautiful ideas so that conferences and retreats can flow seamlessly. That reflects the precision of God. I have another friend who loves to speak. She tells the most amazing stories with such detail that I feel as if I’m a child again, listening in delight. That reflects the richness of God in his words. Finally, I have a friend who loves to bake. Her treats are given to people in need, reflecting the generosity of God.
Hand lettering by Ali Hoffman
You are so needed and my prayer for you is that you find that God-given passion and desire to use for the glory of God; to show that his kingdom is here and now.
Download this article as a PDF here.
Ali Hoffman, a youth minister in Carrollton, Texas, does hand lettering at TheOodlesOfDoodles.
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