The Creative Ideal of the Artist and Teacher
- Michael Snellen
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
A look at the guiding principles that make an excellent artist or teacher
Artists and teachers. Sometimes they act differently, some of them dress differently, and perhaps appear as two entirely separate careers.
On the contrary, my own experience as an artist and my experience as a teacher constantly overlap, interweave, and benefit one another.
These vocational disciplines are united by common aspects of creativity, formation, and reliance on God—and at the core of each are values that seem hidden yet are obvious when analyzed.
A great artist is a teacher. And a great teacher is an artist.
Our mission at Sacred Heart Christian Creators is to serve artists and teachers, as well as business and ministry workers, uniting and fostering collaboration between all creators of culture. Thus, when I wish to combine my usage of “artist” and “teacher” in this article, I will occasionally call them “creatives.” I’ll also note that some of the principles here also relate to business and ministry workers and this comparison, while not focused on them, will be beneficial for their consideration.
This article will be broken down into three sections.
The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
Leading Others out of Darkness
Leisure as a Garden for Greatness
What Are the Commonalities Between Artists and Teachers
1. The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
To share what is good, true, and beautiful should be the ultimate aim of an artist and a teacher, as that is how we bring Jesus to others, He who is “the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6). This is how we save souls.
Goodness is good, truth is true, and life itself is beautiful. The creative must express these tenets in their endeavors and they must be at the heart of their mission.
St. Augustine once said that if the world couldn’t help us to understand God better, God wouldn’t have created the world. It would have been pointless. However, as creatures of flesh, we learn lessons and virtues by our activities in the world that bring us closer to God.
Art and lesson plans themselves would also be pointless if they didn’t teach us something about God.
A beautiful symphony does that. Looking wonderfully through a microscope does that.
The ideal artist and teacher is someone who encapsulates what is good, true, and beautiful and expresses that to others.
2. Leading Others out of Darkness
A great piece of art has an ability to light up a room, making it a place of comfort for all who dwell in it. A joyful teacher can bring a gloomy child from the worst circumstances of life to happiness and success.
Consider a magnificent sculpture of George Washington that might inspire the courage of a wearied soldier. The ideal heroism we see in Washington, and its worth, is communicated to a young man in the midst of his struggle, doubting if he made the right decision to join the army.
On the other hand, educators also showcase ideals and lay out a path to reach them. Whether that be the resolve of Socrates to the truth or the ingenuity of Isaac Newton.
The moral lesson of Socrates’ dedication to do what was right, unto death itself, comes across the same whether through painting or storytelling.
For those who serve the young in their profession, knowledge is a service, as knowledge is a means by which to rise above the ephemeralness of life. Scripture says, “Blessed is a person who finds wisdom.” (Proverbs 3:13) But how does one obtain wisdom? Scripture again says: “The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” (Proverbs 18:15)
On a similar note, Socrates elaborates on the meaning of knowing the truth. In Plato’s Republic, he metaphorically compares this act of education to finding the way out a cave.
Take a look at the image below. On the right you will see prisoners in chains, trapped only to see shadows on a wall. The prisoners, never having seen anything besides these shadows—believe the shadows to be the true forms of these animals and objects.
In this Allegory of the Cave, a prisoner escapes the cave. Now he is, in the light of the sun, no longer seeing shadows but true things. As we all know, after stepping outside in the sunlight after hibernating in our homes for so long, it is somewhat painful. Likewise, for the prisoner, there is pain associated with seeing what is true and therefore knowing what is true. Furthermore, when he returns into the cave to tell the others, he is rejected.
Now, we have all experienced what it is like to discover something true, trying to tell someone about it, and being rejected for its sake. And, as any student knows, learning can be painful in the same way it was for the prisoner.
Still, truth is worthwhile and better then lies, just as knowing things as they really are is better than ignorance.
Our duty as artists and teachers, as people who have made it out of the cave, is to return into the cave to lead others out of darkness. In fact, the word education derives from educere, which means “to lead out.”
3. Leisure as a Garden for Greatness
Nothing can ruin artistic talent like quotas and inflexibility in deadlines. Many writers come up with their best ideas while walking. Wasted time is not always wasted.
Some of the biggest challenges I encountered from my second year of teaching came from trying to cram in too much material. I would burn myself out in making extensive slideshows and assignments, my students would become anxious that they couldn’t keep up, and leisure was lost.
To once more get to the root of things, the word school comes from the Greek σχολή. For those who can’t read Greek, myself included, it means “leisure.” Schools are places of leisure!
Of course, laziness can creep in on an artist if they lose a sense of standards and bad art can result if they forsake all conventional rules. A teacher who does not prepare and plans to do everything extemporaneously is setting themselves up for a failure of purpose.
Leisure is not laziness. It is the environment which cultivates and nurtures truly good things in life. As Josef Pieper shows in his 1947 essay Leisure: The Basis of Culture, without leisure, a myriad of problems can arise when civilization is focused only on productivity. The hyper-industrialized American society of his time and our own society feels the effects of this, exhaustion over excellence, settling for just getting by over the pursuit of greatness, and incompleteness.
A terrible part of children working through their youths without undertaking an education is that they grow up to be adults without the skills to achieve excellence.
One might say that Jesus worked with Joseph during his boyhood and that is correct. Though, he also studied the Scriptures and grew in wisdom.
Many people today talk of the importance of taking breaks during a workday. The artist can benefit stepping back and allowing the mind time to consider.
Likewise, a teacher might do more for their students spending a class on the trial of Socrates, planting seeds that last a lifetime, then by then memorization of a timeline of Ancient Greece which only serves them to pass the forced test the next day.
A blessing of the life of an artist and a teacher is that they get to spend their time contemplating the fascinating ideas and ideals of life, not so that they can become proud in their own knowledge and an isolated esoteric, but so that they may share the good, true, and beautiful with the world, lead others out of darkness, and invite all to contemplate how blessed they are, discover the wonders of creation, and know how great is our God.
In a following article, I will dig deeper into the vocations of the artist and the teacher, discussing how each has their own unique talents that could be shared with the other respective vocation.
You are also invited to discover the Christian Creators community, academy, and services, if you have enjoyed this topic:
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