Janie B. Cheaney: The art of embellishment

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 22nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up next, WORLD Commentator Janie B Cheaney reflects on the need to create, and what it might tell us about our creator.

JANIE B CHEANEY: Do you remember when “scrapbook” became a verb? When craft stores played host to women pouring hours into a single scrapbook page, sometimes featuring only one or two actual photographs, smothered in artistic expression. The fad soon gave way to digital scrapbooks that achieved a similar effect in a fraction of the time. Stores closed and papercraft supplies retreated to online outlets, which claim some of my disposable income at least once a year.

My thing though is not scrapbooks but cards. Some are unique creations and some, like the handmade Christmas cards I no longer have time for, were mass-produced assembly-line style. These days, most of them are embellished cards out of a box. But even for those, craft makes it demands.

For instance, my card box contains a stack of watercolor florals I like to decorate with butterfly stickers. I personalize the stickers by inserting a small piece of vellum under each wing to make them pop. This takes time. First, section out a rectangle of vellum just large enough to cover one wing. Snip the antenna where it’s attached to the wing. Apply the vellum and carefully cut around the wing to remove the excess. Add a tiny glue dot to the body to make sure it will hold, and finally apply the finished work to the card—not just anywhere, but in a spot that balances the overall composition.

It’s tedious to describe, and also to do. Any creative act requires tedious craftsmanship, whether mixing paint or dyeing yarn or cutting boards or putting words together. Nevertheless, the creator is compelled to persevere. I was in a hurry one morning and decided to forego the 3-D butterfly effect. But no . . . it wouldn’t do. I peeled off the sticker I’d already stuck and hunted down the vellum and scissors. I satisfied myself, and hope the recipient of the card will be equally pleased.

But all the time I was thinking, Why? The work itself seemed to demand it. Even though conceived and executed by me, it has a quality, a character, a life apart from me. This is as true of a handmade card as it is of a perfect loaf of homemade bread or a well-turned chair leg or a masterpiece like Beethoven’s 3rd symphony. Once created, the work has its own integrity. If it doesn’t, the creator knows, and will not rest until he achieves what the work demands.

This should tell us something. The world is crammed with meaning, not just because God made it but because he equips us to embellish it. Some call this creativity, a word that unfortunately separates so-called “creatives” from those who think they’re no such thing. But everybody has their nagging center of beauty or perfection they can’t leave alone.

Is it too presumptuous to say that we are God’s nagging center? “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,” Paul tells us in Ephesians. God is shaping and carving us by means that are often tedious, but necessary. He’s aiming for perfection, and won’t leave us alone until he’s satisfied.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

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