When I was in my senior year of design school, I had to come up with quote or piece of advice that could be displayed in the class’s senior exhibition for visitors to read. I’m not the greatest with inventing catchy or memorable phrases when prompted. I tend to overthink it with my perfectionist mind. But I realized that it didn’t need to be something incredibly funny or profound, just genuine.
Something that has been incredibly impactful and even, in some ways, life changing for me is a book titled Culture Care[i] by Makoto Fujimura. The book unpacks the responsibilities that everyone, but specifically artists, have in creating good and beautiful culture. It changed my whole outlook and approach on who I should be as an artist. And so “Be generous with your art. Be genuine with your design” felt like a simple and accurate statement to put under my name.
“Be generous with your art. Be genuine with your design”
The quote seems pretty straight forward. Be generous with the art you make. Pour your whole ability and self into it and share it with others. Be genuine in how you design. Don’t be lazy or put in mediocre effort. But I realized there was a much bigger idea I wanted to understand and express in this quote. So, I thought I would unpack it and share my thoughts here. What does it look like to be generous and genuine with art, design, or any sort of craft or skill?
First, what does it mean to be generous? The word generous is defined of a person as being ready to give more of something, like time or money, than what is necessary. In the transactional sense, you’re giving away something at a loss. Your losing assets. But generosity shouldn’t be thought of as simply a transactional loss. I don’t even really like the idea of generosity as being an investment, although it’s probably a little more accurate. Generosity isn’t worried about checks and balances. It is a hopeful sacrifice. It’s giving away something with the hope, but no guarantee, of positive impact. Generosity is generative. It activates and enables. When someone gives sacrificially from themselves or their assets, they’re giving with the hope of initiating flourishment and growth in something.
“Generosity is generative.”
The generosity of the Gospel is what makes Christians some of the most generous people on earth. When you understand the massive, sacrificial, regenerative gift of Christ’s death and resurrection, that Christ-like generosity is activated in you.
So how can someone be generous with their art or craft? There are lots of ways. A lot of it comes down to sacrificing our time and income. The truth is, we don’t need to be getting a paycheck for every piece that we create. Obviously, an artist needs to eat and pay the bills, but we shouldn’t be chasing the dollar for the dollar’s sake.
That graphic you design off the clock for a friend can help them grow their business. That structure you craft on the weekend can bring new life and beauty to the community. Giving a free hour of music lessons each week can enable a young musician to develop their passion. We can be generous with our craft by sacrificing money and time for the sake of an individual or a community. Your ability is a gift that can grow new and beautiful things. Create in abundance and bless the people around you with the work you do.
The other piece of the statement is to “be genuine”. Not just genuine but also good. Art is incredibly powerful and carries responsibility. Art is what creates culture. It allows people to connect and communicate beyond words. It tells stories and speaks truth. However, it can also speak lies, destroy, and divide. We have a responsibility to create with good and genuine intention.
What does it mean to be genuine? The word genuine is defined as being true or authentic. There is nothing false or dishonest about it. We should not be deceptive with our work. Don’t be lazy with your work. Don’t be mediocre. Don’t create for the crowd’s approval. Don’t deceive people with your work for the sake of profit. And don’t create something that speaks lies or slander about another person or peoples.
To be genuine, you do the best work that you know you can do, even when a job doesn’t feel satisfying or exciting. Some jobs aren’t fun. We should still treat the work as worthy of our skill. Being genuine means exercising our creative muscles and doing the work to grow them. It also means that, sometimes, we must create something that goes against what everyone else is saying. We must speak truth.
“We should still treat the work as worthy of our skill. Being genuine means exercising our creative muscles and doing the work to grow them.”
Our work should be good and genuine. We have a responsibility to create for the flourishing of others and ourselves. And for Christians, we are called to take it one step further by not simply being genuine and uplifting with our creativity, but to do it all for God’s glory. For He is the one who has given humans these creative gifts so that we can reflect His Holy, creative nature.
“Be generous with your art. Be genuine with your design.” It’s nice but doesn’t say enough. Maybe a better way to phrase it is “Create with goodness, genuineness, and generosity”. I don’t know. I hope you get the idea. It’s something that I want to be better at. I hope maybe you can be inspired by these ideas too. I’m going to further unpack this subject later, but for now, I’ll just close it here.
Until next time,
Grant O.
[i] Fujimura, M. (2017). Culture care: Reconnecting with beauty for our common life. IVP Books, an imprint of InterVarsity Press.
Grant Overbeek 
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