Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
– André Gide
The relation between spirituality, creativity and expression of art is undeniable. They are so intermingled that in many ancient societies with conscious regard for sacredness, there were no separate name for artist or art. Everyone was artist and every action was an action of sacred creativity.And it should not be surprising as John O’Donohue reminds us,
“The heart of human identity is the capacity and desire for birthing. To be is to become creative and bring forth the beautiful.”
The Creative process
- Formulation: discovery of the artist’s subject or problem.
- Saturation: a period of intense research on the subject or problem.
- Incubation: letting the unconscious sift the information and develop a response.
- Inspiration: a flash of one’s own unique solution to the problem.
- Translation: bringing the internal solution to the outer form.
- Integration: sharing the creative answer with the world and getting feedback.
– Alex Grey
The creative process is argued to be one of the most important tools an artist has. In this weeks reading, there is a discussion about the difference between seeing things passively and actually experiencing and feeling the things one sees. In seeing things they can be quickly forgotten, but for the artist looking at it’s subject it becomes so much more than that. It becomes and intimate relationship between the artist and the object and the artist become engulfed in it. This allows the artist to truly see what it is for its actual meaning. This vision can and will be different for each viewer which is pointed out in step 3. When the “unconscious sifts” through the object the artist comes up with an interpretation that is meaningful to the artist.
“In order to bring forth their most profound work, artists need to be sensitive to and courageous about their own creative process.” (Pg. 75, A. Grey)
How do you define “spirituality”?
When i heard the term spirituality first time it automatically made me think of religion. The issue with this thought process was I knew that not everybody, including me, is religious, but i felt my self little spiritual with in my process of creativity,at that time i was not awaire about the truth of true religion and spirituality but now I do consider myself only spiritual .Today i believe that spirituality does differ from religion but some people may find their spirituality in their religion.The people can be spiritual without having any influence from religion. In contrast, I do not think people can be religious without having influence from one’s own spirituality. i think most religions revolve around praying or worshiping some that is “higher” than you but I don’t think prayer to a God is necessary when speaking of spirituality. So I would define spirituality as beliefs that one lives by according to their own inner beliefs that provide happiness and fulfillment. This fulfillment can come from anywhere that works best for you such as a higher being that you may believe in, from within, or perhaps from certain trees or animals.
Spirituality and Creativity:
In one sense, spirituality is the sacred ground to be aware of the relationship to mystery. Human quest for meaning leads to a longing for something that is beyond the limits of our capacity to fully describe in language. We come to recognize there is a depth dimension to the world beyond surface appearances. This is the presence that great mystics have described as the God beyond all names, the Divine or simply the Presence. Spirituality facilitates an encounter with the presence of mystery in our lives and nurtures a relationship with it.
Creativity is a powerful shaping force in human life. It is an intangible human capacity of a transcendent nature – it moves us beyond ourselves in a similar way to spirituality. The psychologist Rollo May describes creativity as “the process of bringing something new into being,” something that did not exist before – an idea, a new arrangement, a painting, a story. Ellen Dissanayake, an anthropologist, suggests that the act of creating is actually a biological need that is basic to human nature and she describes creating as “making special.” Creativity includes the arts, but really encompasses the whole of our lives. Every act in which we “make special” can be a creative one.
Dissanayake concludes her writings with,
“Art is a normal and necessary behavior of human beings that like talking, exercising, playing, working, socializing, learning, loving and nurturing should be encouraged and developed in everyone.”
“Although the art praised by postmodern critics is puzzling, if not offensive or shocking, the social problems and cultural predicaments it reflects cannot be denied” (Dissanayake).
Dissanayake also states that postmodern art is high in “pastiche and collages,” Dissanayake says this denies the integrity of individual art.
As growing up I notice more and more my personal disinterest in doing art or creating new things. When the opportunity arises I usually opt for something more mind numbing such as television or the Internet. I think this is one of the issues present in our current society. It’s a mixture of laziness and over saturation of technological distractions.
The act of things being considered high art seems to be counter productive to the inclusion of all people in art. The phrase “I can’t do that, im not an artist” is heard to often in society. I believe people have been conditioned to only consider things they feel are “good” as actual art. But like Dissanayake says,
“art is the act of making the ordinary extra-ordinary.”
The writing drives home the idea that these extra-ordinary things are as vital to human nature as eating and sleeping. Dissanayake says the species view of art combines the positives of both modernist and postmodernist views giving birth to the notion that art is “a source for heightened personal experience with postmodernism’s insistence that it belongs to everyone, and is potentially all around us.
What is the source of creativity?
Carl Jung believed images are expressions of deep human experience and our authentic selves. They are the natural and primary language for the psyche and only secondarily do we move to conceptual thought. About the intelligence of creative expression gifted to human being, sufi poet and mystic Rumi tells us:
“One already completed and preserved inside you: a spring overflowing its springbox. This intelligence is a fountainhead from within you, moving out.”
Creativity and Art is about honoring and moving with this intelligence that originates from within us, inside.
First, one seeks to become an artist by training the hand. Then one finds it is the eye that needs improving. Later one learns it is the mind that wants developing, only to find that the ultimate quest of the artist is in the spirit.
– Larry Brullo
Sources of creativity stem from any and everywhere , there are no one source that is right or wrong.You can say it is a infinite multidimentional process with unknown source.. Each person has something or someone that influences how that person choses to express their creativeness. My source of creativity is largely based on teachings of my master regarding sufism. I am constantly being bombarded with images of other’s work as well.Chose to mentally critique all that I see uptill now. That usually leads to me saying something like,Oh there is something hidden mystery need to be unfold..the moment when i enjoys the whole journey through a image.
Driving Force:
It’s not about what it is made of nor how it is made, it’s about inspirationof function that renders the soul which makes craft, “Art.” Craft is based on functionality and Spirituality is the Basis of Art.
– Jacques Vesery
This discussion was about the process that artists go through to get to the end result, which is their art work. This process is different for each artist but Grey makes it clear that the process is almost just as important as the final work.
Both Spirituality and creativity play an enormous roll in the creative process and thought process artists go through. Creativity and spirituality are the true driving force for artistic expression.
All great art owes to the inspiration of true religion of “Oneness”. When spring comes, trees burst into blossoms. What spring is to the trees, inspiration is to human race. All creative art activity, such as architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry and music is an expression of spiritual joy felt by sensitive people.
Being an artist I would like to be always in tuned with why I do the things I do, whether it be writing a paper, or painting a portrait,or singing a song or playing a instrument.My Goal is to reach my personal Creativity Source and this is my Driving Force.
Keep enjoy the bliss of spiritulity with creativity
ღஜღ Love ღஜღ
Artist Seher Mohammmd
Sources:-
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