- Our identity is forged at an early age.
- Our identity is either forced or forged.
- Once we have labeled and categorized ourselves, things change.
- The labels that define us in high school don’t change after high school, they morph.
- The Internet allows us to create our own identity.
- We can reveal whoever we want to be to whoever wants to listen to us.
- It can thrust us into celebrity literally in the blink of an eye.
- Our ego needs to be left at the door.
- Equally, our timidity and insecurities need to be left at the door.
- Both are devastating.
- Regardless of where you are from, be YOU.
- K-I-R … Keep It Real
- Be honest with who you are.
- As our artists, our quest plays down into the quest to be known.
- OUr value isn’t in what other people think of us or in what we create.
- Twitter is 140 characters of a billion characters that really make up your life.
- Every single one of us wants to be known.
- We want to be known for what makes us unique and be accepted regardless of our brokenness.
- We want to be known, heard, though of and care for.
- It plays off of our deepest insecurities.
- For creative types it’s difficult.
- What we produce is, an essence, a piece of who we are.
- Our art should reflect who we are.
- True art not only reveals a story but reveals who we are at our core.
- The first tweet said, “Inviting coworkers.”
- Jack Dorsey developed a software tool that plays into all of our insecurities.
- Social media’s success plays upon on insecurities and deepest fears.
- We want to mask our loneliness.
- We put on facades to mask our loneliness… clothing, accessories, hair styles, etc.
- We can’t throw stones at the institution because we are a part of the institution.
- The broken pieces of us are what draw us to reach other and draw us to reveal the Gospel message of redemption.
- Who we are bears mark on who we are and what we do.
- Art is painful.
- Art is hard.
- Art that is vulnerable is beautiful.
- God is the author and finisher of our faith.
- We are like clay in the hand of a potter.
- God was the originator of life.
- God was the creator of all.
- God who is a creator of good, true and beautiful cares about the work we are creating.
- The God, who is Lord over all, gave us free will to choose.
- Choose to accept or reject the life He’s given us.
- God didn’t leave His masterpiece on the wall.
- God interjected Himself into creation through Jesus.
- We have been called to create and be a manifestation of Christ through what we create.
- Is what you do injected with soul?
- If we are made free, it is our obligation to use our gifts and talents to make other people free.
- What we do has 2 reasons: to free us and to free others.
- We have to billing to be known.
- We have to reveal ourself.
- To be vulnerable, authentic and REAL.
- If you want to be known you have to be willing to expose yourself.
- You take good art to great art by infusing it with soul.
- You cannot be known unless you reveal who you are.
- What we do should bring freedom.
- The power of us being real and vulnerable gives other people the power to be real.
- When we are open we give people the ability to be open back.
- It is for freedom that we have been set free.
- We have been created to do good works.
- We have been given gifts with a creative bent.
- We have it for a reason.
- Our identity changes when we encounter the living God. Our art should reflect that.
- We can sometimes come to places when we don’t think we are good enough.
- We need to be honest and transparent about who we are: a broken work in progress.
- Our art should reflect that.
- Where God has us where we are to be uniquely who we are
- With this privilege comes responsibility.
- We are artists creating what God has called us to create.
- Make yourself known.
- Allow people to incrementally know you.
- People won’t be real with us unless we are real with them.
- We are all in a position of leadership.
- Be who you is.
Discussion
- In your art, how do you find you infuse your art or your work with your identity?
- Keep your identity intact but manage the broken parts of who you are.
- I.e. if you are emotional, manage your emotions.
- The greatest weapon you have is doing what only you can do.
- Our life is the best Gospel we can preach.
- Don’t deny who you are.
- If we can explain it God probably isn’t in it… God works in the impossible.
