Celebration of the Mundane

Once in my second year of university, my printmaking professor gave us an assignment called “Celebration of the Mundane”. He wanted us to take something normal and give it value through a print. Upon further explanation from the professor, I felt stuck. Take something normal and give it value through art? Of course, when trying to think about something everything seemed so normal…

I remember starting with the nearest object- the pencil sharpener. How am I going to celebrate this object? How am I going to show its beauty to the world? What story am I telling here? I quickly disregarded the sharpener. I turned my attention to the outlet plug nearby. I tried taking some photos, different angles- nope, nothing was working for me. Well, I guess this was going to be as hard as I thought. I turned back to the sharpener and eventually looked at the shavings. Something SO mundane I totally passed over them to look at the bigger object that created them. Finally! I found something so boring, that I knew it would be a challenge to show the beauty of it- and I felt up for the challenge.

Creating the print still had its challenges the whole way through the project. The technique was new, but I found myself questioning the print repeatedly. Is this even nice? Will I even receive a passing grade? Each step along the way had me doubting and questioning the subject. That is, until I finally saw the result. The time making the print resulted in one of my favorite prints from the whole class. Though is it a beautiful print, I think it became one of my favorites because of how it stretched me more than depicting the colorful pencil shavings. To this day I do not think of “mundane” things the same way. The projects really instilled in me thinking of how to tell the story of the tiny things. I find I now often seek out the beauty that I can find in the mundane. Waiting at a bus stop I will notice the crack in the plexiglass almost looks like the side profile of a man with a mustache- that would be a fun story to tell! Or on a long car ride and finding out the dashboard controls create a face. The small things that have become a story that I love to imagine in those little moments.

Things that are mundane are the most passed over objects that we see in the day to day. The things that are so normal to us that our brain decides they aren’t even worth noticing.

I often think back to that assignment and mentally thank the professor for the project. He probably has no idea the degree to which that project has stuck with one of his students. He doesn’t know how that has changed the way I think about the mundane. I think that finding beauty in the details has become one of my most favorite things. I love to appreciate the leaves changing color on an autumn day and often find God in those small beauties. We often think that our big God can only be in big things, and not the details. We even have that expression- “the devil is in the details”, but God is found even in the smallest of things. He’s showing up every day in my life giving me little “winks” from the details, from that quirky crack at the bus stop to the beautiful fall leaves. These mundane things have become my favorite beautiful reminders.

I love thinking of the small mundane winks when thinking of this verse as well:

“Whoever can be trusted with little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with little also will be dishonest with much” Luke 16:10.

I love catching the small mundane winks throughout the day and realizing the small things God gives us in the day to day are there to prepare us for Him showing up in the bigger ways. Me noticing those small moments makes it so much easier to trust him when he tells me the big things too. Seeing those things that put a smile on my face regularly puts me in communion with God. Makes me feel Him each day and makes me love our friendship that much more. So then when he tells me something much bigger, I have that foundational friendship to be able to hear it. Hearing something like “move to a new country” or “quit your job” I wouldn’t be able to hear without that foundational friendship, and would take me so much longer to hear his will in my life.

Think about the mundane and you go about your day today. See how God is winking at you and seeking your attention in the tiny moments today. What are those small moments that are so beautiful they catch you for a second? What are the tiny winks showing up in your day today? Enjoy them ;)

-Heidi Heckenberg- Gossen