• Vol. 07
  • Chapter 07

Art, as more than music

At a seminar on Christianity and art,
a woman compares the stark white walls of
a North American Protestant 1800s church to
a gilded, ornate, icon-filled Byzantium church.

Wood paintings remind me of icons.

The simplicity of
the white walls in
the one contrast with
the storytelling icons throughout
the nooks and crannies of
the other.

Old paintings on wood look a bit like icons.
Old paint and wood conjure the aroma of incense and musty stones.
Old memories of churches encrusted with music to the detriment of all other
old and new art forms.

What is lost in the banishment of images?
What is gained by the Muslim use of calligraphy as adornment?
What is there to be learned from the unnamed artist and iconographers?

The visual art of storytelling has become
the prime mode of narration in
the digital age.

The priest and artist of old knew
the power of visual arts to tell
the stories.

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