The Transformative Power of Faith and Art | Janalee Emmer | 2021 скачать в хорошем качестве

The Transformative Power of Faith and Art | Janalee Emmer | 2021

Janalee Emmer shares how both faith and art transform our hearts and foster empathy. Art can help us see the world from a new perspective. Read the speech here: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/janale... Learn more about the author: https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/jan... More BYU Speeches here: https://www.speeches.byu.edu/ Subscribe to BYU Speeches:    / byuspeeches   Follow BYU Speeches: Podcasts: https://www.speeches.byu.edu/podcasts/ Facebook:   / byuspeeches   Instagram:   / byuspeeches   Twitter:   / byuspeeches   Pinterest:   / byuspeeches   © Brigham Young University. All rights reserved. It is an incredible honor to be here today. Thank you to those of you who are here in person and who are listening online. BYU devotionals and forums are a unique and wonderful part of our campus traditions, and I am humbled and grateful to be a part of them. In my career as an art historian and museum professional, I have had the great privilege of learning from art and artists of the past and present. Today I would like to share some of the insights, both secular and spiritual, that I have learned through my field of study. I would like to begin with a quote from French artist Rosa Bonheur, perhaps the most successful female painter of the nineteenth century. Near the end of her career, Bonheur declared: “My whole life has been devoted to improving my work and keeping alive the Creator’s spark in my soul. Each of us has a spark, and we’ve all got to account for what we do.”1 Bonheur’s spark led her to paint, despite enormous obstacles and cultural restrictions, and to paint what she loved, which was animals. Her impressive painting The Horse Fair, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1853, is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. Through it, her bold determination to be true to herself and to that spark inside her opened the doors of possibility for later generations of women. A parade of men on horseback Rosa Bonheur (1822–99), The Horse Fair, 1852–55, oil on canvas, 96 1/4 x 199 1/2 inches, Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1887. What are we doing to keep the Creator’s spark alive in our souls? How are we improving our work and our abilities? We all have unique gifts and skills. Your time at the university is an incredible opportunity to investigate, experiment with, and develop those gifts. The truth is that this search for your place, for excellence, and for your particular aptitudes will be a lifelong pursuit. While not all of us are artists, all of us need both creativity and inspiration to find our way. I believe that the arts and the gospel can guide us as we go, ­providing fresh perspectives, new ways of looking, and much needed reassurance. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul said to the believers in Corinth, “For now we see through a glass, darkly” (emphasis added). His words underscore one of the great obstacles of life: we have limited understanding and perceptions. We must daily assess the best courses of action while seeing through darkened, obscured glass. This week marks exactly one year from the time that things shut down in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What a year this has been—unexpected and challenging, a time of uncertainty, isolation, and often loneliness. Beyond the pandemic, this past year has been fraught with weighty and monumental issues such as racial turmoil, political acrimony, and disturbing incivility. At the beginning of the year, President Kevin J Worthen summarized 2020 succinctly as “COVID and chaos.”2 These circumstances can feel daunting and overwhelming. Here on earth, it is easy to feel a bit like the disciples in Mark 4:37–40. They were in a boat during a raging storm that threatened to overwhelm them, and the Savior was sleeping. “And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38; emphasis added). I think this story resonates with all of us. Sometimes we think, Don’t you care that this is happening to me? Don’t you see that my dreams are being crushed? Don’t you know that my family member is so ill or that I have lost my job or that my marriage is struggling? Don’t you see that this addiction or infertility or death of a loved one is killing me? We each may insert whatever it is that we are struggling with at the moment. I know that in my own life it is easy to become convinced, however momentarily, of a sleeping God. We rashly jump to the conclusion that He either does not know—the equivalent of ­sleeping—or does not care. Master, carest thou not that we perish? But in the biblical account, that is not the end of the story. In Mark 4:39–40 we read..."