Three words to describe Let There Be Art would be gentle, playful, and questioning.

I don’t remember how I was introduced to Rachel Marie Kang, but I am immensely grateful for who she is and the space she creates for creatives. Let There Be Art is a book about creation – the creation of a product, a decision, a song, a story, a novel, a painting, a website, a meal, an app. Rachel dials in the importance of the first chapters in Genesis, in which God creates our world. The beauty of art is the act of creation. She peppers the pages with poems, prayers, and prompts for your own inspiration. The pieces of writing and poems littered throughout are not of her own either! She has fostered a community of creatives, all working to better create.

Each chapter is titled “Let There Be ____.” I expected some of the titles like “Let There Be Goodness” and “Let There Be Home,” but others surprised me, “Let There Be Silence” and “Let There Be Fairy Tales”. However, within these pages, she hit the nail I’ve been trying to hammer for several months. In your creating something, you are growing closer to Your Creator. By writing, you string words together into worlds. By painting, you brush pigments into pictures. By gardening, you tend vines into a trellis’.

Rachel writes with a zeal for a return to our roots of imagination and childhood. She shares about an interaction with a colleague, “Don’t confuse childlike with childish.” But this is what she’s done best in her work, sharing a glimpse of the joy that came with our younger years and bringing it back to life with our recent experiences. Her later chapters get these moments of suffering and silence to rest in a holy place alongside our joy; sitting side by side, we can live and create in balance.

Post-lockdown and pandemic, we all felt a tinge of needing something more. From whipping coffee to oblivion, trying viral dance videos, or baking sourdough bread, every human felt a deep spark of something permanent. Rachel Marie Kang does a beautiful job of presenting creation as a technique for grounding. Calming a mother’s hands as she cuts vegetables to cook with dinner or a pianist’s hands as their fingers float from key to key. These slow motions allow the space to think; differently, they transport us to a different place.

Let There Be Art will sit on my shelf for recommendations if you want to know why you enjoy the creation of a product or doing a service. It’s a beautiful tribute to our great Creator. Rachel Marie Kang’s book releases today, add it to your cart now!

“...In these moments and places and churches and homes and classrooms and seasons, that you must unearth and unleash the kind of courageous creativity that will not only seep out of your story but save your soul.”

An important book for our time. The stories and word art held within this book are life giving and experiential. This is recommended reading for anyone who has called themselves creative but has possibly been lost in the passing of ordinary days.

✨𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥✨

Perhaps in no other way do we more vibrantly reflect our creator than with our creativity. Whether through music, writing, baking, painting, posting on social media, dancing, or any other form of artistic expression within our grasp, we were created to create. Yet, there are times we may be unsure about our art, times when our creating and making doesn’t feel possible or purposeful or practical.

Rachel Marie Kang wants you to know that your art is not peripheral to life–it is at the very heart of why you exist and what you have to offer to yourself and to the world. In Let There Be Art, she gives you permission to embrace the peace, pleasure, and purpose inherent in your art and in the process of making it. This passionate, creative, and cathartic journey invites you to create truthfully out of the broken and beautiful pieces of your life, as well as offer your heart and your art in hopes of helping a hurting world.

Thank you @tlcbooktours @tlcdiversity @revellbooks and @bakerpublishing for this tour invite.

𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 by @rachelmariekang releases today October 11, 2022.