So much to reflect on in this book. This book makes me so thankful for art - the way it allows us to see our Creator and co-create with him. Her perspective on good art is so refreshing - it is something created out of a dying to self, from a place in the artist that they aren’t even aware of, in order to attempt to create cosmos out of chaos. The artist is aching for truth, yearning for the beauty in the ashes, and that is why it stands the test of time and culture. I loved how she characterized Christian art: the Christian artist cares what the children see. We are all children, and children should not be sheltered from the pain and suffering of this world, but they should be taught to see it through the lens of the Incarnation - everything that is is broken, everything that will be is perfect. Her chapters were far from organized. It was very stream of consciousness - one paragraph touching on a different thought than the next. The book as a whole was very cohesive however, and the farther you read, the more every chapter tied together. She used repetition beautifully. Full of antidotes about her own experience as an artist and full of examples of great artists of the past - applicable for those who would consider themselves artists by profession, for those who would consider themselves artists by hobby, and for those who wouldn’t consider themselves artists in any capacity but who love Jesus and want to seek truth and love in Him. 

But only if I die first, only if I am willing to die. I am mortal, flawed, trapped in my own skin, my own barely used brain, I do not understand this death, but I am learning to trust it.

Only through this death can come the glory of resurrection; only through this death can come birth.

And I cannot do it myself. It is not easy to think of any kind of death as a gift, but it is prefigured for us in the mighty acts of Creation and Incarnation; in Crucifixion and Resurrection.

You are my helper and redeemer; make no long tarrying, my God.