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How do you define “spirituality”?

For me, spirituality should be the thing that created by our mind and we all have a different spirituality which we born with. Spirituality is the source of our value system and it is the key to understand the distinct personality of each individual. The cultural background and the environment we lived with will affect our spirituality in some aspects. There is no single sentence for me to define spirituality because it is complex in the sense of how it works in our deep mind.

Does spirituality differ from religion?

Yes, I think spirituality is differ from religion. I think both of them are focused on what we believe, and both of them are the primary sources for our value system. However, spirituality is different than religion because it is a personal practice, and religion is more like a social practice. We can all have the same religion belief, but we should have a distinct spirituality for each individual.  We should not consider religion belief as the spirituality of people because it cannot represent what the deep mind is for that person.

How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity is just simply how our brain generates new ideas. It is the process for our brain to perceive the information we have learned, and then use this information combine with personal values and experience, which create the new point of view for something. I think creativity is a special talent of human beings, and this is the main difference between human and other animals. Creativity could be expressed in many places in our life

What is the source of creativity?

There are many sources of creativity, such as knowledge, inspiration, and spirituality. We learn knowledge from classes, books and through the communication with others. Inspiration comes from outside environmental influence. Spirituality comes from our deep inside and it is mostly what we born with. Those sources help us to generate new ideas and they are the foundation for our creativity. I believe that creativity can be enhanced by practice, and the more we understand how it works, the more we can do to improve the ability to create new things.

This week’s reading is really interesting because it discussed about the question about the spirituality and creativity of how artists generate their artworks. It is sure that art and spirituality are close related with each other. I think artists have different views for the artworks they see, and this is what they pursued the mission of art. It is helpful for me to understand that how artists perceive those works of art. According to the course reading, the author Grey mentioned that “Drawing is a way of entering into the spiritual practice of art and seeing” (Page 86). This means that artists are not only drawing the artworks based on what they express the world they see, it is also a tool for them to present what their spirituality looks like. This is a two way thinking between creating the artwork and using the creating process as the way entering their inside world.

Another interesting thing is the creative process mentioned in the article. Grey stated that the creative process is included formulation, saturation, incubation, inspiration, translation and integration. (Page 75) I usually think that the creative process should be complex, however, the process here in the article gives me a good idea about how to understand the process of creativity. I think the hardest part in this process is the incubation and inspiration part. We need to really get the idea inside of the brain and make the incubation to create new ideas. The inspiring part is always being considered as one of the main differences between an artist and normal people.