COMPETITORS OR COWORKERS?

     What is the key word in the phrase "art contest"? Is it "art"? Or is it "contest"?

     The concept of an art or music contest presupposes that there are winners and losers connected with the event. That, in turn, presupposes that there are objective criteria by which one can measure and compare the quality of the work of two or more competing artists or musicians, just as one can measure and compare the number of touchdowns two opposing football teams score in order to determine who won the game.

     But that's a problem, isn't it? Touchdowns are inherently measurable. One either scores or one doesn't. With rare exceptions, there's very little room for ambiguity or debate. It's relatively easy to compare one team to another to see which team scored the most touchdowns.

     Things get much more complicated when it comes to the arts. The premise that it is possible to objectively declare that one artist is the "winner" and that another artist is a "loser" seems to be highly questionable.

     While there are criteria with which one can evaluate art in order to determine in some vague sense whether or not the art exhibits high quality, one cannot apply such criteria with the type of precision which would be necessary in order to state with any certainty that one work of art is objectively superior to another work of art, unless the gap in quality between the two works of art is unusually and glaringly obvious. And even then, some would argue that the imposition of one's own aesthetic preferences on another person's work of art is inherently unjust, since it falsely assumes that all artists share the same goals and aesthetic sensibilities.

     (The same observations, by the way, are equally applicable to the concept of "beauty contests". Perceptions about what constitutes beauty in the human form are inherently subjective. Skilled portrait artists will sometimes tell you that the result of spending a lot of time trying to accurately capture numerous faces is that they come to appreciate the unique value and dignity of every human being. Seen in that light, even the "ugliest" of human beings becomes beautiful. Besides, describing people as "competitors", when many of the attributes on which they are being judged are genetically determined characteristics over which they have little or no control, seems specious. Art contests are at least fairer than beauty "contests" in that respect.)

     In order to reduce the level of subjectivity in a contest pertaining to the arts, one can create a competition in which the parameters by which the art will be judged are clearly stated in advance. In such a case, one can judge one particular piece of art as having come closest to meeting the arbitrary parameters of the competition, without necessarily stating that the art chosen as the "winner" is a better piece of art overall.

     For example, one might hold an art contest in which the stated objective was to paint a beautiful image of a bowl of fruit. If a contestant submitted a painting of a football quarterback on the field, such a painting would clearly fail to meet the parameters of the competition, no matter how much it succeeded on its own terms. It would therefore be appropriate to award the top prize to someone who had actually painted a bowl of fruit. But things would get a lot murkier and a lot more subjective when faced with numerous paintings which all clearly depicted bowls of fruit. Notwithstanding the fact that there are commonly recognized principles of artistic composition, the results of any competition between such entries would still boil down to the personal taste of the judge or judges. It might be, for example, that the majority of the judges strongly preferred impressionism to sharp focus realism. In such an instance, a painter whose work could be characterized as photorealistic might have little or no chance of winning a prize, even though it was never clearly stated in the competition rules that impressionists would receive preferential treatment.

     Similar observations could be made regarding contests pertaining to other artistic disciplines, such as music. It's virtually impossible to hold contests in such a way as to prevent the personal preferences and biases of the judge or judges from influencing the outcome in terms of who wins and who loses. A contestant in a music competition might be the world's greatest unknown jazz musician, but if all of the people on the judges' panel despised jazz music, that contestant would be highly unlikely to win the top prize. If it was clearly stated in advance that other styles of music were preferred over jazz, then that musician would have no one to blame but himself for losing such a competition. But people who hold music contests are not always open and honest about their stylistic biases.

"Apocalypse Soon" © by Mark Pettigrew

     True innovators or those who are on the cutting edge are seldom if ever awarded with the top prizes when participating in contests pertaining to music or art. It usually takes time for people to grow sufficiently accustomed to new styles of art and music. Meanwhile, it is hard for them to assess such styles objectively. Judges in such contests are just human beings like everyone else. Often, they are selected as judges on the basis of their own past accomplishments. Many of them are still living in the past. Some of them take the time and make the effort to be fully informed about the latest trends in art and music, but many others do not. When such people rate innovative artists poorly, that is often more of a reflection on the judges' ignorance than on the actual quality of the work which they have rated poorly.

     Of course, it does not follow from the fact that a particular piece of art or music follows the latest trends that the art or music is worthy of praise. A particular piece of art or music may be a poor example of the style of art or music it purports to represent. Or the style it represents may, in itself, be unworthy of praise. Trendiness does not necessarily equal high quality. But neither should a piece of art or music be automatically rejected for no better reason than the fact that it represents a style or trend with which a particular judge is unfamiliar.

     Issues pertaining to stylistic preferences are particularly prominent when it comes to music contests among Christian musicians. Often, judges in such contests come from churches where certain musical styles are considered to be inherently unworthy to be used in service to Christ. It matters not to such judges that there is a complete lack of scriptural evidence to support the idea that God favors one style of music over another. Their negative preconceptions about such musical styles literally make it impossible for them to assess such music objectively. The end result is that such music contests can have the effect of enforcing a kind of bland uniformity among Christian musicians, rather than encouraging risk taking and innovation. Creative people who deserve praise are sometimes the least likely to receive recognition in the context of such contests.

     If contests pertaining to the arts are inherently subjective, then why are such contests so common in the world of the arts? Why do we insist on pitting one creative person against one another, rather than just accepting and acknowledging that every piece of art is unique and on some level incomparable to every other piece of art?

     I suspect that the prevalence of art contests is attributable primarily to the usefulness of such events in terms of showcasing new talent and furnishing beginning artists with one possible means of deriving additional income from their work. Artists who win during such competitions can also list such awards on their artists' resumes. Visual artists and musicians will enter their work into contests, on the off chance that they might be selected as the "winners" and therefore take home a prize or award, knowing full well that winners are often selected on the basis of arbitrary and subjective criteria which are beyond the abilities of contestants to completely predict or control.

     Unlike professional athletes who live to compete with one another, artists and musicians seldom show much of an interest in competition, once they have achieved adequate recognition and career success. By definition, an artist or musician who feels a need to engage in "cutting contests" with other artists or musicians is insecure. It may be popular sport among some music or art fans to argue about who is the "greatest" guitarist or the "greatest" painter, but the musicians and artists themselves are generally more interested in fully exploring the limits of their creative abilities than they are in the outcome of such useless and divisive debates.

     Who was or is the world's greatest guitarist? B.B. King, Chet Atkins, Phil Keaggy, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Andres Segovia, Eric Clapton, Pat Metheny or Al DiMeola? How can one objectively answer such a question? Music is an art, not a sporting event. All of the aforementioned guitarists (and many others I have not thought to include) possessed or possess great skill and great musical aptitude. It simply is not fair for them to have to compete with one another.

     Inexperienced contestants who don't yet fully appreciate the inherently subjective nature of art-related competitions run the risk of getting their feelings seriously hurt as the result of not quite passing muster with the judges. Rather than taking those assessments of their art with a grain of salt, such people can walk away feeling devastated and worthless.

     That ought to concern us as Christians. Unpleasant and painful experiences in connection with such competitions can discourage people who have a moral responsibility to use all of their talents from doing so.

     Conversely, winning one or more contests can detract from an artist's ability to stay humble. As concerned as God is about whether or not we use our talents, I believe that he is equally concerned about our unfortunate tendency to gloat when we win.

     Excessively high self esteem and excessively low self esteem are equally injurious when it comes to a person's relationship with God and with other human beings. Artistic talent is a wonderful thing to possess, but personal character is what impresses God the most.

     So how does all of this relate to the ministry of ArtisticChristians.com? Should we reject the concept of art contests altogether?

     Personally, I feel that the answer is "no". Despite the aforementioned drawbacks which are inherent in the nature of contests involving artistic creativity, contests pertaining to the arts can be useful, provided that we openly acknowledge the subjective nature of such competitions. We must do our best to insure that participation in such contests is not inadvertently harmful to the participants. We can do this, in part, by emphasizing our awareness of the fallibility of the judging process.

     At some point in the future, ArtisticChristians.com will probably hold competitions pertaining to various art forms, both as a means of drawing attention to deserving new talent and as a means of encouraging others to become involved in this ministry of the arts. ArtisticChristians.com will use such events, in part, as a means of encouraging all creative Christians to strive for excellence. However, we will also seek to conduct such events in a Christlike manner which affirms the dignity and value of every contestant, regardless of who wins and who loses.

     When we allow failures or successes in connection with such competitive events to define us as human beings, we all lose. When we act in obedience to God by using all of the talents we have been given, not so that we might be idolized by others but so that God might be glorified, then we all win.

     Contests related to the arts sometimes serve a legitimate purpose, but ultimately, Christians (whether they are artistically talented or not) need to learn to see one another as coworkers in the Kingdom of God, not as competitors with one another. There is a sense in which competition is inherently self-centered, unless such competition is tempered by humility on the part of both competitors and judges. Instead of focusing primarily on exalting ourselves at the expense of others, we ought to focus on the type of character development which will enable us to harmoniously work together in pursuit of common goals which we all share or ought to share.

     For more information about how you can get involved with the Christian arts ministry at ArtisticChristians.com, please send me an e-mail message. My address: mark_w_pettigrew[at]hotmail[dot]com.

... Mark W. Pettigrew
    Webmaster and Christian Renaissance Man