Art As a Spiritual Gateway: Classical Music and Rediscovering Creative Joy
What happens when the art form you once loved becomes a way of proving your worth?
For oboist, educator, and author Merideth Estevez, classical music began as a source of joy and wonder. As a child, it was even a language through which she experienced God. But somewhere along the way, the pursuit of excellence became entangled with perfectionism, achievement, and the need to prove herself.
In her book Art Is How God Loves Us, Merideth invites us to reconsider what art actually is. Rather than seeing art as something reserved for the technically gifted, she describes it as “atoms responding to transcendence”—our participation in the creative abundance already at work in the world.
In this conversation, we talk about the difference between perfectionism and excellence, what an oboe reed can teach us about faith, why imperfection can be a sign of life, and how technical training can become a vocabulary rather than a prison. We explore the relationship between tradition and innovation, the ways art can become a spiritual gateway, and what it might mean to encounter God through a symphony, a painting, a river, or even the ordinary creative choices of everyday life.
Ultimately, Merideth offers an invitation to see ourselves differently: not as people who have to earn our worth through what we create, but as people made in the image of an Artist—and therefore already invited to create.
Merideth Estevez is an oboist, educator, author, and coach whose work explores the intersection of creativity, faith, and wellbeing. She is the author of Art Is How God Loves Us and The Artist's Joy.
In this episode:
- Redefining art as “atoms responding to transcendence”
- The difference between perfectionism and excellence
- Tradition, innovation, and learning the rules so we can break them
- Art as a spiritual gateway
- Finding God in unexpected works of art
- Why you don't have to consider yourself an artist to create
Learn more about Merideth Estevez and her work at artistsforjoy.org.
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