opacity – the quality of a material that does not allow light to pass through it

 

Photo: Nathaniel McQueen – (CC BY 2.0)

If I were to have an orange, I would say that the orange has high opacity. That is, most of the light that shines on it is forced to trampoline off and bounce to the back of your eye (as opposed to passing through it). Conversely, sauteed onions have a lower opacity because light can pass through them more easily. Transparency works opposite of opacity – thus, something highly opaque has low transparency.

Got it?

Because this idea colors what you create.

 

Asking Questions

Sometimes in storytelling, I think it’s easy to create a story without vision for anything beyond the page, screen, or stage.  Readers, watchers, and listeners are no better for having been near to us. They are no more aware of our passions, no more awake to our perspective, and no more challenged with our words.

You are far too valuable to trade the opacity of those passions for the ‘likes’ of the rest of the world.

 

 

Losing Track-tion

I’ve been on a journey of my own regarding this whole idea of ‘opacity’. Questions about who and what TPC is drove me to this question:

What should the opacity of the Kingdom of God be?

I know my readers want to go somewhere, but would having an overlay of faith over-saturate my image and wash out what I was trying to say?

The breakthrough came when I realized that writing without faith, for me, wasn’t just a bad idea (I was running out of agnostic topics) – it was dishonest to who I am.

I am a Christian, why write like an agnostic?

And for crying out loud – how on earth can I preach ‘go be yourself’ when I was omitting something of this magnitude?

The idea was idiotic.

Where I landed was to create TPC as a website I could be a part of, rather than a website that revolves around me.

I’m a Christian in a building, but that doesn’t mean I have to call the building a church.

And this was absolutely liberating: art with my name on it is free to be filtered by my faith, and the website is free to exist as a neutral environment for others.

Like a coffee shop.

Because now I’m free to be myself and I don’t feel awkward inviting an atheist (a website is a poor substitute for a church anyways).

 

Themes

The opactiy of the Kingdom was a theme for me, but I’m sure you have themes of your own. Themes you’re struggling to portray in your art for one reason of another. Think about a piece that you’re currently working on.

Got it?

Describe the theme in one sentence in the comments!