Art is increasingly being seen as a vocation, not merely a hobby or a side job. Although there are a variety of types of artists—musicians, poets, novelists, painters, photographers, and more—they all have one thing in common: they create new things. “There are those who look at things the way they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and ask, ‘Why not?’” Robert Kennedy famously said. This, says Tim Keller, is the charter of a creative.
Although this talk was given in the context of a forum on entrepreneurship, the truths that Keller highlights are just as true for an artist as they are for an entrepreneur. For both individuals seek to create something new from raw materials. They both seek to dream of things that never were and create them. This is a wonderful foundational talk to guide our thinking about faith and the arts.