My art studio is where the magic happens.
Magic that has nothing to do with how the pretty pictures are made.
My studio serves many purposes – it’s my favorite place to sketch, brainstorm, write, paint, and design cool things – but basically, it’s where I go to slow down, get silent, and listen to God. It’s my creative base of operations where I receive light that I reflect into a dark world.
That’s why I call it Echo Base.
(And also because I am a Star Wars nerd.)
When I am there, in my happy place, a strange phenomenon occurs: Time simultaneously slows down and speeds up.
It slows down in that all the distractions and frenzied noise from the outside world fade away. I am present, and everything feels calmer, slower.
Meanwhile, time flies. I am so engrossed in the act of creation that hours pass in a way that feels like minutes.
As wonderful as it feels to be in that zone, even that’s not the magical part.
“Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs.”
I first heard that line in a Switchfoot song many years ago. I was probably barely into my twenties, but it sure resonated, and still does today.
As we journey through life, it’s easy to get duped into doubting our beliefs. When we put too much stock in our doubts, the grip on our beliefs loosens. This leads to uncertainty and anxiety, which causes even more doubt. We are more susceptible to this cycle when we are operating at a hurried pace, inundated by noise and distractions.
When we are in a place of peace and calm, it’s easier to feel a sense of conviction and certainty about what we know to be true.
My studio is where I doubt my doubts and believe my beliefs. I do this by painting what I believe: That God is good, the world is beautiful, and light always defeats darkness. (If you look closely at my portfolio, that’s the theme you’ll see over and over again.)
If you look at the world, it doesn’t take long to doubt those beliefs. It looks like darkness is winning. The world can be violently ugly. And God doesn’t always seem so good.
When I am discouraged and filled with doubt, I retreat to my studio to create things that are good, true, and beautiful. This act of creation helps remind me of my beliefs, causing the doubts to shrivel and fade away.
In the midst of this process is where the true magic — bordering on miraculous — occurs. As the act of painting reinforces my belief, it also transforms it into a physical embodiment of that belief. This arrangement of paint on canvas turns it into a totem, something tangible that can be passed along, in the form of a social media post, a greeting card, or a framed print that can be shared with someone else. At that point, it becomes more than just a painting. It becomes a gift that reinforces the belief within them, perhaps in a desperately-needed moment, when doubts were starting to pile up in their own life.
It’s like a message in a bottle that can float on through the years, impacting people far away and even after I’m gone.
If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is.
In these days when darkness seems to have the upper hand and anxiety is at an all-time high, retreat to your secret hideout. You might not have an art studio, but I bet you do have a place where time simultaneously stands still and speeds up. A place where that little flame inside you gets reignited.
Turns out that any time you light a candle, even if just for yourself, it can illuminate the path for someone else, too.
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