Thoughts on Expressing Faith through Art.
11/03/14 
윤영준
2006-2010 SK해운 인력관리팀 근무
2012 Master of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
현재 Cornell University에서 인적자원관리 (HR Studies) 박사과정 재학 중
현재 코넬한인교회 집사
I'm not often asked to speak about faith, but that's probably because I'm an artist working in the feature animation industry. I was an intern at Pixar Animation Studios while the studio was transitioning between Up and Toy Story 3. I currently work at Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Rio) on their next film Epic. However, I think of God as being at the center of everything we can possibly do. The problem I find is that there's not a lot of discussion going on about the relationship between faith and art and how to express and explore issues of spirituality in art in a sophisticated, dynamic manner. I've found a few answers which I'll discuss here, but I'm always looking for more answers and perspectives.
What is the best way to express a Christian faith in anything you create? To live your faith out through your art? I'm pretty sure one way NOT to do it is to be didactic, to preach in a very overt and on-the-nose way. If the point of the gospel is to communicate God's love and truth to people, we should be concentrating on the best ways to communicate and reach people, not judge or alienate them. People don't respond too well to being preached at, but they respond better to being entertained, to being taken away to another reality through a film, to being swept away by a well written story.
Art has always been about self-expression and freedom, but it's also been about communication. So instead of bashing people over the head with a Bible, why not master the art of story structure and storytelling and tell a story that shows the Christian message through action instead of words instead? There comes a point when we have to stop just talking about our ideals and start living them out, putting our faith into action, into movement, into animation. I think of what Christ says in Matthew 7:26: 'But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.' I'm not saying I'm perfect at all, but the world must be pretty tired of hypocrites in the church by now.
However, the world is seemingly always open to seeing the Gospel in action, lived out, and one place to find this is in art. Just look at the writings of C.S Lewis or J.R.R Tolkien, the songs of Bob Dylan and U2 and the incredible animated films of Pixar. Some of the most popular art is at heart some of the most Christian as well. All of these examples have provided me with some of the best answers on the question of how to express and live out your faith through art.
C.S Lewis is famous for his Christian apologetic writing, all of which I'm a huge fan of, but he's also famous for writing the childrens' book series called The Chronicles of Narnia. JRR Tolkein, a Catholic and good friend of CS Lewis, is also famous for writing another popular fantasy series, The Lord Of The Rings. In both Narnia and Lord Of The Rings there are themes of personal growth and selfless sacrifice, and a very vivid struggle of good versus evil. The character Aslan, a giant lion from Narnia, even dies to save several characters and comes back to life a few days later, evoking Christ's resurrection. None of these novels ever mention Jesus or God directly but their characters and stories are drenched in the language, imagery and ideas of Christianity. Thus, we can see God presented in an entertaining and captivating way through metaphor to audiences that would normally not be open to hearing about him.
Popular music also provides more insight into how artists can express their faith through their art. The songs of U2 and Bob Dylan have always inspired me both musically and lyrically. Both of these artists are some of the biggest-selling artists of all time and yet at the center of many of their songs is the struggle between faith and doubt, the fallen state of the world and a defiant spirit of change. I think of a song like U2's 'Where The Streets Have No Name' which dreams of some sort of transcendent place where there are no divisions or borders between people. I hear Bob Dylan's classic 'Blowin' In The Wind' and think of the song as a prayer. Who else would you ask, 'How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?' You wouldn't ask that to your friends or your parents - they wouldn't know, but I bet God would.
It's perfectly alright to ask questions, to not have all the answers. Look at all the Psalms of David in which questions, wrestles with and demands answers from God. I think God would invite us to also ask the biggest and deepest questions to him because he just wants to hear from us. What would you ask God? It might inspire your next piece of artwork.
Asking questions is an important part of the much larger job of exploring faith and applying it to our world. That's why I feel Pixar's films are also worth discussing in the context of faith and art. Having worked there for a little bit, I can attest that the company itself prides itself on collaboration and lots of their artists are great, kind and wonderful people. Pixar stories are extremely entertaining, but underneath all the toys, cars and fantastic characters are much deeper themes and concerns. The director of Finding Nemo & Wall-E, Andrew Stanton, is a Christian, and it shows in both those films. Finding Nemo is the story of a father fish who desperately searches the ocean for his lost child, embodying an agape kind of love, of God searching desperately for his lost children. Wall-E also evokes another biblical image in the story of Adam & Eve, though this time its two robots in the distant future named Wall-E and Eva, and their adventures as the last two living things on planet Earth. Through these very unconventional and visually unique stories, the storytellers at Pixar are able to present a strong story that explores very serious themes, but no one would ever accuse them of being too serious.
There's many reasons why Pixar has succeeded as much as they've succeeded, but I'm personally impressed by how they're able to both entertain and communicate elements of a greater truth. I really think you need both qualities in order to create a strong work of art. There's a term in film and photography called 'dynamic range.' Dynamic range refers to how much color information a film can capture. A film with tremendous dynamic range can capture lots of details in the darkest parts of the image and lots of details in the brightest parts of the image - and everything in between.
That's why even Pixar's first film, Toy Story, is such an amazing movie. We're presented with a world full of bright and colorful talking toys that live in an exciting world, but we soon discover that these toys can get insecure, jealous, isolated and hurt. It's a powerful examination of human emotions that sometimes goes into surprisingly dark places (for an animated film.) Pixar's demonstrated very powerfully in all its films that you need to find a way to discuss both the silly and the serious, the fantastic and the poetic, the universal and the personal - that you might need both to illustrate issues of faith, existence, etc.
These examples all provide a general direction of what effective portrayals of faith in art look like, but it's possible to look at all these examples and accuse them all of not being specific enough, of not professing Christ more directly. While I mentioned earlier that I don't believe in being forceful about presenting elements of faith in art, I do believe there's much more work to be done to find the perfect balance of 'preaching without preaching.' How much is too much? How little is too little? When are you compromising your faith and when are you being too aggressive with it? It's not about being afraid to confess your beliefs, it's about how can you be most effective in sharing it.
I guess that this is one area where experience and life will teach me more - I'm certainly open to any ideas. I'm sure that the majority of audiences that watched Finding Nemo didn't think immediately about Jesus after the film, but it certainly may have impressed them with how strong and relentless a father's love is for his children. How do you continue the conversation about these larger themes of God and faith in your next works of art then? I'm not sure, but maybe just starting the conversation in people's minds is a tremendous first step in itself.
I think we need to talk about these issues more. Art influences the ideas of the world and shapes how we perceive the world. I'm blessed that my home church, Hillsong NYC, has a huge community of artists and a special weekly service for artists called Creative Collected in which we help support all areas of the church through arts. However, in my experience that's an exception. Most churches and youth groups have no firm idea how to handle and equip artists both as artists and as Christians. Knowledge is power. Did you know, for example, that the producer of the X-Men movie series, Ralph Winter, is a very strong Christian? That Glen Keane, the former Disney animator behind The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast and Tangled, is a Christian? Imagine how much more empowered Christian artists would feel knowing that they're not alone and that they can - and should - aim for the highest goals possible.
We're called as Christians to do so, after all. I was inspired by a sermon at Hillsong NYC by our pastor Carl Lentz titled, 'Occupy All Streets,' which is this idea that the hand of God is behind us whatever we do and whoever we are, so we have to do our best doing whatever we do, whether its the arts, business, science etc. I still have a lot to learn and everything I've written is by no means a final answer on anything. I'm still looking forward to finding more ways to bring my Christianity into my art. This much I know though: You live out your faith by living it out, by moving, by having fun and creating a doorway to a much greater world beyond through your art.