How meaning emerges in the act of making

 We visited the Art Institute in Chicago and I always like roaming through the modern art section.  We looked at, muttered about, sighed over the many interesting sculptures and paintings.  We walked past this exhibit and wondered what picture was supposed to go there.  

I read to see what would be there only to realize that THIS was the exhibit, the 2x4 's resting on the floor. It seems the artist painstakingly recreated wood planks using  polyurethane. This was a labor intensive process to mimic the ordinary wood that litters an artists floor. 

"The resulting functionless work pays tribute to the readymade, a found object that is transformed into art simply by being presented as such. Untitled invites us to consider not only what things are but also how they come to be -- and how meaning emerges in the act of making. "

Fischi and Weis 1993-94

Here these created pieces of ordinary wood lie on the floor, often overlooked with the same idea I had that the real exhibit was waiting to be placed.  This piece did its work, I am still thinking about it. So much work to create such an ordinary looking thing. Not a beautiful thing, just old wood 2x4's.  

It is art because it was presented as such. We were as well. 

Created and imprinted with God. Ordinary dirt transformed into a work of art given meaning by the act of making. Too often, way too often we don't see our value and more often then that, don't see the others either. 

We are the planks of wood recreated. We are dirt reformed; title given, Image Bearers. 

We all have meaning in this divine act of making. 

Lets treat each other and ourselves with the dignity a work of art deserves.