Honesty In Our Art

In my most recent book, I’m The Worst, I explore the idea of what it means to truly be honest with ourselves by facing the dark, difficult, and disappointing parts of our beings, and how this is the only way we will ever truly find redemption, restoration, and freedom.

But the same is true of art…

To make art that not only connects with but offers the viewer a meaningful and maybe even life-changing experience, the artist must be brave enough to honestly explore, display, and portray the messy parts of life—the ones many of us want to look away from or gloss over. It’s only when the artist does this—takes an unflinching look at the darkness in this world—that the artist is able to offer the viewer the light in the midst of it. But this is easier said than done, for when an artist creates, they put part of themself into the art, so to be able to explore and display brokenness in one’s art, the artist must be brave enough to explore and display the brokenness in themself. We see this in the greatest and most impactful works of art, music, literature, and film throughout history. When the artist is courageous enough to not hide, run, or cover over the brokenness in the world or their very souls, they’re able to create truly meaningful and lasting work that has the ability to touch and change those who interact with it.

For the faith-based artist, this is a necessity, as we artists of faith inherently desire to reach and change our audience with the love and truth of God. Unfortunately, in recent decades, Christian-made art, particularly in the realm of film, has become synonymous not only with low quality (which is an entire issue unto itself) but dishonesty. The dishonesty often comes in the form of marketing faith as a magic fix-all or wish-granting genie so as to convince the viewer of the faith product like an infomercial, or obscuring and hiding difficult issues (often being labeled as “objectionable content”) so as not to make the filmmakers or the viewer uncomfortable. And while these dishonest tactics are often done with good intentions, they end up having hugely negative effects—primarily in the form of the secular unbelieving world seeing faith as a dubious product being sold to them or an impotent philosophy that has no ability to address, connect to, or offer insight into the very real dark, difficult, and messy issues they face in their very real lives.

If we are to be artists of faith who have the ability to reach a lost world in need of God’s hope, love, and redemption, we must be brave enough to be honest in the art we make, which will only come when we are brave enough to be honest with ourselves.