Portraying Evil in Art

Portraying evil in art accurately can be hard. Evil is part of reality. It is a legitimate topic for all kinds of art…and yet, as creatives how do we guard our hearts? This may be the most challenging for actors and actresses depicting evil characters, but any creative taking time to paint the scene, write the dialogue, or design the environment for this evil will encounter a unique challenge.

Occupational Hazard

Portraying evil can come with a sort of occupational hazard. This is not a reason to avoid it. The grand narrative of Scripture could not be told without the reality of sin and evil. From the very first book of the bible, we see original sin, even living in an idyllic garden. They betrayed God’s trust and chose to do the one thing they were commanded not to do. And this is followed quickly by Cain killing his own brother, Abel. Evil has always been with us. To fail to portray it at some point may be a failure to be honest about life and reality, like a Pollyanna worldview.

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