As Jacqueline Claire said in a blog post, “At present in society at large, it often feels like we regard art as either a fun pastime, an inadvisable and not very remunerative profession, or at best, a form of mass entertainment or an elite luxury. But the Baha’i teachings offer us a very different perspective…” Although doing a fast painting (19 minutes) doesn’t lend itself to perfection in an image, doing it daily does help with training the eye and hand to respond deftly and with greater precision and freedom of expression. I appreciate that God, the “Fashioner” is a model for us to also bring something unique into existence, using our spiritual connection with Him in preparatory prayer and meditation. The chaos of creation gradually resolves itself into more clarity as we take the painting where IT wants to go, trusting that the chaos and problem solving are a necessary part of the creative process. As we paint, we are pulling some intangible concepts out of the ether and using spiritual sensibilities forming tangible interpretations. Art is a form of worship! Here is the quote that inspired this painting: “I rejoice to hear that thou takest pains with thine art, for in this wonderful new age, art is worship. The more thou strivest to perfect it, the closer wilt thou come to God. What bestowal could be greater than this, that one’s art should be even as the act of worshipping the Lord? That is to say, when thy fingers grasp the paint brush, it is as if thou wert at prayer in the Temple.” – Abdu’l-Baha, Extract from a tablet from Persian, recorded in Mirror of the Divine: Art in the Bahá’í World Community, p. 45