Rembrandt is in the Wind Quotes

“Story is a trojan horse for truth. It can sneak truth past the gates of our defenses and prepare our hearts to hear things we might have resisted if they had come as mere declaration.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Living with limits is one of the ways we enter into beauty we would not have otherwise seen, good work we would not have chosen, and relationships we would not have treasured. For the Christian, accepting our limits is one of the ways we are shaped to fit together as living stones into the body of Christ. As much as our strengths are a gift to the church, so are our limitations.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Not only are we drawn to beauty, we are the only creatures who engage in certain behaviors purely for the sake of encountering beauty. We use vacation days to drive to places where we can see the sun come up over the ocean. We visit art museums, theaters, and symphonies. We look at the moon and the stars. We climb to high mountain lakes to put our feet in the frigid water to feel the rush and see the reflection of the summit in the ripples we have made. No other creature stops to behold something beautiful for no other reason than that it has stirred something in their souls. When we do these things, are we not like Moses and David, hungering to see the glory of God?”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Story is a trojan horse for truth. It can sneak truth past the gates of our defenses and prepare our hearts to hear things we might have resisted if they had come as mere declaration. Jesus relied on storytelling as his primary method of teaching for just this reason--to persuade Jews to empathize with Samaritans, wealthy people to care for the poor, and religious people to have compassion on society's fringe.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Sometimes this is the artist’s work—to stand and knock on the door of glory and, whenever possible, siphon little wisps of smoke from those places where we catch a glimpse of the light so that others might see and believe. What can we show each other of glory anyway except light in shadow? What glory can anyone see in any of us except for wisps of smoke, traces of the great burning fire? And is that not enough for now—to show enough to prove there’s more?”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“We live in communities that need goodness, truth, and beauty. And we play a role in advancing those transcendentals that make us human. We are to curate them for others. We play a role in blowing on the embers of "whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“By painting himself into the boat in The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt wants us to know that he believes his life will either be lost in a sea of chaos or preserved by the Son of God. Those are his only two options. And by peering through the storm and out of the frame to us, he asks if we are not in the same boat.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“The pattern in Scripture is that of God working through unlikely servants for the glory of his name and the spread of the gospel.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“We are drawn to beauty, and we instinctively know that somewhere, somehow, such a thing as perfection exists. (...) Our best attempts at achieving perfection this side of glory come from an innate awareness that it not only exists, but that we were made for it.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“There’s nothing more genuinely artistic than to love people,” said Vincent van Gogh.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“We are drawn to beauty, and we instinctively know that somewhere, somehow, such a thing as perfection exists”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“I cannot think of a single thing in my life that doesn't bear the touch of others. I'm guessing you can't either. Of course we wish some of those chisel marks never happened--the ones that draw from us a plea for mercy, the ones that kindle a hunger for the renewal of all things. But other marks have been necessary to give us eyes to behold goodness, truth, and beauty we would not have known otherwise. Living with limits is one of the ways we enter into beauty we would not have otherwise seen, good work we would not have chosen, and relationships we would not have treasured. For the Christian, accepting our limits is one of the ways we are shaped to fit together as living stones into the body of Christ. As much as our strengths are a gift to the church, so are our limitations.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“This is the gift of beauty from an artist to their community—to awaken our senses to the world as God made it and to awaken our senses to God himself (p. 14).”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Beauty is a relic of Eden - a remnant of what is good. It comes from a deeper realm. It trickles into our lives as water from a crack in a dam, and what lies on the other side of that dam fills us with wonder and fear. Glory lies on the other side. And we were made for glory.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“So many things in our world are beautiful but didn’t need to be. God chose to make them that way so he might arrest his people by their senses to awaken us from the slumbering economy of pragmatism. That awakening is a vital function of beauty. This is the gift of beauty from an artist to their community—to awaken our senses to the world as God made it and to awaken our senses to God himself.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“It is hard to render an honest self-portrait if we want to conceal what is unattractive and hide what is broken. We want to appear beautiful. But when we do this, we hide what needs redemption —what we trust Christ to redeem. And everything redeemed by Christ becomes beautiful.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Henri Nouwen wrote in The Return of the Prodigal Son, “Our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“If only people could look beyond their imagined impressions of others, if only we could see each other as we really are and not as exaggerated stereotypes, if only a genuine curiosity about the lives of others formed our pursuit to know them, then so many of the forces that divide us would be emptied of their power. We would see the common human experiences of joy and sorrow, love and loss, struggle and victory in those around us, and we would count it all sacred.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“This is the intangibility of genius--to create work that transfers from the canvas, the page, or the instrument into the heart of another person, arousing a longing for beauty and an end to sadness. This was what Vincent wanted to create--art that would transfer from his easel into someone else's soul to work as a balm of healing for the broken.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Many artists took their easels and paints outside and captured what they saw. Vincent wanted to capture what he felt as he tried to remember what he saw.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Vincent didn't see the world as a collection of plain, unaffected objects. He saw the unfolding drama of the human story, which to him was a heartbreaking tale.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“(H)is art is made of darkness and light. It is glorious yet grotesque, divine yet close to the earth, highly intelligent yet easy to understand. It presents a gospel to the poor. (...) Caravaggio understood that the gospel was (...) a power vital for the languishing. It was a message of grit and hope for the vile and desperate. It was the promise of God at work in a world of prostitutes and magistrates and murders and those chased by the hounds of heaven.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Until then, we save our vacation days, plan our itineraries, and make our way across oceans, over mountains, through cities, and down the long stretches of highway that span the countryside to take our place in line to catch a glimpse of the deeper glory we know we were made for. (...) We go to the Louvre in Paris, the Met in New York City. (...) We go to the Grand Canyon of the American West (...) the forests of East Asia, and the islands of the South Pacific. (...) Why? All to join the carnal to the divine. All to get closer to glory.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Eve did not solve the problem of Adam's limitations. God didn't put the man to sleep and graft into him the rest of what he lacked. Instead, God took something out of the man and made a partner to come alongside, helpful but distinct.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“So many things in our world are beautiful but didn't need to be. God chose to make them that way so he might arrest his people by their senses to awaken us from the slumbering economy of pragmatism. That awakening is a vital function of beauty.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“The more we engage with beauty, the more we train our hearts to anticipate finding beauty, until eventually, everywhere we go, we're looking for it.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way . . . To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion—all in one.”14”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“In my later entries of the diary homework, I pondered, “Why art?” In answer to my cry, my professor wrote back in typical eloquence, “Mako, that is one of the most important questions to ask. And I would like to push you to ask a deeper question through your art and writing: ‘Why live?”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“Depicting Jesus as he actually was—a Middle Eastern, dark-skinned Jew—wasn’t a value at that time because the goal of art wasn’t historical accuracy; it was accessibility.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“On the other side of the veil is the tangible glory of unfailing perfection, but it is just out of our reach. So we have given ourselves to the pursuit of making copies from the dust of the earth, compressed by time, crafted by pressure, but conceived by something more than mere imagination. Our best attempts at achieving perfection this side of glory come from an innate awareness that it not only exists, but that we were made for it.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith