You don’t have to do some “great thing” to consider yourself a great artist.
Here’s how I know.
One evening in Rome’s Marconi District, a 20-minute drive from the Colosseum, the best restaurants buzzed with the conversation of happy, expectant diners.
I was one of them.
But, instead of staying seated at the table with my friends, I stood next to the chef.
He was filleting a large fish that our host—a friend of his—had ordered.
When that same host invited me over to observe, I leapt at the opportunity.
With rapt attention, I watched as he handled that fish with his knife with as much patience as I imagined Michelangelo once chiseled the “Pietà.“
I noted that he smiled, not for my camera, but out of joy for his task.
Here was a man who loved to prepare good food and to serve others, quietly and with precision.
Within minutes, he had made that fish almost too beautiful to eat. Like an artist!
And as he began to plate it, words from the short story, Babette’s Feast, popped into my head:
“I am a great artist!”
So declares the title character, Madame Babette Hersant, a master chef.
Babette goes on to say how “perfectly happy” she can make her patrons when she does her “very best.”
All without a hint of pride.
Today, which happens to be one of those instances when it feels hard to write, I’m asking myself:
Will I always take the time to deliver my absolute best?
Even if I know no one will ever notice – much less record with a camera – how hard I’ve worked to do so?
I hope so.
When the next time comes around that we feel uninspired, I hope both of us will do what a great artist does: Our humble best.
After all, the Word makes it clear “what” we’re to do:
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might;…
—Ecclesiastes 9:10 AMP
…and “how” to do it.
Have this same attitude…that was in Christ Jesus [look to Him as your example in selfless humility]
—Philippians 2:5 AMP
To consider yourself an artist, you need only consistently pursue mastery in what God has gifted you to do with the good of others in mind.
Just like The Great Artist did.
In that way, you can make them happy.
And, as that chef’s smile made abundantly clear, you can make yourself quite happy, too.
QUOTES FOR CREATIVES BY CREATIVES
✨THE ARTIST’S CALLING
Artists across time share the same desire: to seek, to work with love, and to give their very best.
In offering our best with love, we honor the Giver of every gift and serve others well.
“I said, ‘I am an artist,’ which I won’t take back, because…what the word implies is looking for something all the time without ever finding it in full. It is the very opposite of saying, ‘I know all about it. I’ve already found it.’…The word means, ‘I am looking, I am hunting for it, I am deeply involved.'”
— DUTCH PAINTER Vincent van Gogh, Letter 192 to Theo (MAY 3-12, 1882)
“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.”
— ENGLISH WRITER AND ART HISTORIAN/CRITIC JOHN RUSKIN, The Two Paths (1859)
”…It is terrible and unbearable to an artist…to be encouraged to do, to be applauded for doing, his second best…Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me leave to do my utmost!‘ “
— DANISH AUTHOR Isak Dinesen, Babette’s Feast
COUNTRY OF THE MONTH CELEBRATION
🇭🇺HUNGARY & ST. STEPHEN’S DAY
Did you know August 20th is St. Stephen’s Day—Hungary’s national holiday?
Who, you may be asking, was St. Stephen?
Stephen was Hungary’s first king and the first member of his family to dedicate his life to Christ.
His birth name was “Vajk,” but he became Stephen after his baptism.
And the Kingdom of Hungary came into being only after his coronation in the year 1000-1001.
It’s due to King Stephen’s efforts that Hungary transformed from a pagan state into a Christian one. And, some forty years after his death—in 1083—he was canonized in a ceremony that ended on August 20th:
St. Stephen’s Feast Day, in honor of Hungary’s patron saint and the country’s founding!
🐉 Join the Celebration! Add some paprika to your pantry–whether sweet, smoked, hot… you get the picture😉. Or make a batch of palacsinta, Hungarian-style crêpes.
Here’s a good palacsinta recipe.
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We’ll talk again in another ten.
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