Profess Creatives

For years, I thought my art had no place in church and only belonged in the academic art space. In the academic space, I explored a plethora of visual themes, talked about my creative process and worked alongside like-minded creatives.

My acceptance there as an artist in the academic was a massive contrast to the lack of space I had in the church to do art. However, I quickly realized the more applaudable kinds of art to make in the academic space were those that presented secular themes. 

In my late teens, I started to take my relationship with God more seriously and my paradigm of art shifted. The art room, and by extension art, became a safe space where I rekindled my relationship with God in solitude.

Can Christians Make Good Art?

During that period, I documented my process of emotional and spiritual metamorphosis in my art and design class portfolio. The process made me realize that I could effectively share my testimony and encounters with God through my art. Still, a mammoth fear hung over my head:

 “Could I even make Christian art that was not cringe worthy?”

Shedding (2018) by Xandria Stennett  

This monstrous fear trailed me into the university space that had an even more dwindled Christian population. I remember one class in particular where two students sitting across from me were having a discussion about how most of the stories in the Bible are fictional. Though plausible rebuttals surfaced my mind, I just sat silently and said nothing out of fear of being seen as the creative that’s too Christian.

In my final year of university, I fell in love with experimental film. It felt like I was painting in motion. Similarly to my last years of high school, I used this new medium as a means to continue to process my spiritual and creative growth as a Christian. But this time the question I had a few year prior now changed to: 

“How can I use art to speak about the things God is teaching me?”

The contemplation led me to produce a series of experimental films  that helped me to process what God was doing in my life at the time. Then I took the leap of sharing my work with an audience through a personal online experimental film exhibition.

The films were more well-received than I anticipated with an audience of over 400 attendees. The positive feedback was overwhelming to say the least!

My creative paradigm shift provoked me to change the question I was asking. Instead of doubting the possibility of making good Christian art, I sought God’s wisdom on improving my skills. And that ultimately led me to reconsider the potency of my influence as a Christian, Caribbean, female artist.