Julianne Mae S.

Lavadia Reading Visual Arts

BSCE 4-5 Ms. Aira Christine Lu
Art and Religion: Putting Boundaries in Creativity

One of the issues art faces today is cultural appropriation. This raises a question on who
has the right to tell certain stories and use specific imagery. In the recent case of Pura Luka Vega,
a drag queen in the Philippines who dressed as Jesus and performed a rendition of ‘The Lord’s
Prayer’, debates arose between religious groups and LGBTQ community about recognizing the
fine line between appreciation and appropriation. This form of act resulted to be offending to
Catholics and other non-secular churches accusing the drag artist of defamation of the name of
Jesus Christ, calling it blasphemous.

This issue illustrates the unintended limits of art and creativity. In the above image
generated by AI (NightCafe Studio), I prompted to create an art showing the central figure of
Christianity, Jesus, in a creative way through pop of colors and imagery of flexible expression of
His image through art. Although through using AI, I encountered inflexibility towards attaining
the exact description and message I want to portray in the art. It took me several tries to achieve
this close representation of infusion of art and religion, where its limits do not apply in the many
benefits of technological advancement. With this, I think, as great as AI may seem, it can never
replace real artists towards manifesting creativity and unique ideas through lines and strokes of
brushes.

The AI image generated above is an example of art emulation aiming to represent the
application of art’s vast beauty even in rigid aspects such as religion. There is never a limit for
creativity as freedom of expression is the very essence of it, but adjustments can be made for the
good of society and respect towards what other people could tolerate within the scope of their
religious beliefs.