Questionable Art? - Copyright 2004 - By Tom Roe

An Internet acquaintance and fellow 3D artist, who is preparing to go to an art school recently wrote me about some concerns he and his dad had. He described one school tour and explained
how great the work was that they were doing there, then he wrote the following..

"...We got to the end of the tour, and when we heard that all students must take a full year of the fundamentals, including a year of life drawing, my dad asked the important question. He wanted to know if there was anyway to avoid that certain objectionable part of life drawing. The answer was an absolute no. They would not budge."

This attitude among Christians concerning traditional art is very disconcerting. I felt it was important to help this young man understand the difference between pornography and art. There is no fuzzy line here as far as I'm concerned. When it is pornography your spirit will feel very uncomfortable in its presence. When it is simply an expression or human observation of the beauty God made then your spirit will recognize that. This is no "I'm ok, your ok" type justification, it is simply separating the kind of conviction God's Spirit can give you, and the kind of guilt Satan will give you to interfere in the plans God has for your talents.

What follows is my responce which I believe may help others...

I presume that by "objectionable part" of life drawing you mean nudes. While I do understand that the thought of staring intimately at a nude human form while studying it and putting your version of what you see on paper can lead to some initial embarrassment, I'm a bit puzzled by your response to the idea. You seem to imply that drawing a nude is a type of pornography. That couldn't be further from the truth. God made us all so wonderfully that it is difficult to truly appreciate the work of the greatest artist unless you get a chance to study the human form. This has been true as far back as art has been a form of expression. This is a non-sexual forum, and other than some initial embarrassment which quickly passed, I found nude drawing to be one of the best opportunities I had in college to further my abilities as an artist.

It is true that we are suppose to be modest in how we present ourselves to the world, but you also have to consider the context of the presentation. To look on the human body and see sin is not what God had in mind, and having read the Bible through a couple of times, I can assure you there is no biblical support for that position.

The context of which I speak is of course the life drawing forum. Many students are gathered around a nude in an attempt to understand why [and how] the human form is so complex and wonderfully made. I see this as an opportunity to study God's work in a non-sexual forum. It is akin to studying a nude to determine what is wrong with the body so you can fix it, like a doctor. You wouldn't presume that a doctor studying a nude is involved in a pornographic endeavor, and the same is true for an artist.

Of course it is also possible to take what God intended for good and turn it into something bad, like using pornographic materials, available freely on the web, to further your artistic abilities, but at the same time wading through tons of images which are an abomination to what God made - sex, and the human form. This is wrong, and the spirit behind it is evil.

If you let Satan convince you that a nude human is something that should offend you, then Satan has won a pretty major battle in your mind. You must be able to separate the truth from the deception. If you can't look upon a nude without wallowing in sexual imaginings then you probably shouldn't draw nudes, but if you can ask God to control your mind, and help you to understand his creation better without giving Satan the upper hand then I think, for an artist, it is imperative that you take lessons from the greatest artist, God Himself.