Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts

June 26, 2016

Art Appreciation by Marnie Pohlmann


“Those who can do; those who can't, teach.” – George Bernard Shaw

Let me add that those who can’t teach appreciate.

I am a writer, but I try my hand at many creative endeavors – only to find out I am not
a musician,
an artist,
a dancer,
a performer,
a gardener,
a sewer,
a decorator;
and I am not even very crafty.

However, I appreciate the creativity that surrounds us. As a teen I fell asleep to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and watched my Dad and brothers perform in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. I have enjoyed Shakespeare at the Avon Theater in Stratford, Ontario and on the banks of the Saskatchewan River. I learned to read basic music. I have acted in skits. I learned to garden, somewhat. I have sewn simple items and chosen the colours and furniture for our home. When it comes to art, I feel like "a jack of all trades, master of none."

I have supplies for many creative arts. Cross-stitch, quilting, crocheting, stamping, card-making, colouring books… the list goes on and on. These supplies are loaned out more than used, and piled in totes, seldom touched by me as life elbows them out of the way.

I do find creative ways to live everyday life, though. Pretty napkins are added to the dining table. Fun pictures make announcements at church. Beautiful photograph backgrounds, some my own, contribute to worship song presentations and my blogs.

My soul is fed and my writing improved by seeing, hearing, and moving among the creativity around me. I cheer on friends and family as they draw, paint, or sew. Today as I write on my deck, wild fescue is dancing with the breeze in the empty lot beside my home. Chickadees are singing praise for God’s supply at the bird feeder. My sister-in-law (she really is the best) is painting our garden planter that is growing lettuce, dill, and herbs.

I have found, even when storms rage and crash on the shores of life, the magnificent imaginative power of God is evident. All around me life continually births anew, strengthening and inspiring my own God-gift of creativity.


Marnie blogs at Phosphorescent