Category: Unit 07

1. I define spirituality as something that is an inner and outer release. A release from the natural world to the spiritual world where you are able to explore your mind, your surroundings and come at peace with who are and what you want in your life. Although I am not a spiritual person myself, I have always thought of starting up meditation because I see meditation as something that helps you relax and maintain a healthy balance in your life, which is how I view spirituality.
2. I see spirituality has something that focuses on yourself within your surroundings. Whereas I see religion as something that focuses on having a specific viewpoint of life and the way you must lead it. With spirituality you are exploring your own opinions and how it may relate to something higher then yourself. But again it is not forcing you to narrow your beliefs down to a single god or a set way of life. With spirituality I feel as if you are free to explore whatever you like and you are not sanctioned to maintain one, specific way of thinking and being.
3. I view creativity as an outlet. An outlet to explore your skills, draw in whatever influences you have had in your life, explore in order to create something new and innovative or different. This can be new, innovative and different from somebody else’s standpoint or it can be new, innovative and different from your own perspective. Creativity is using your mind to try and create something outside your comfort zone and maybe outside other peoples comfort zones as well. It is the new and different instead of the traditional. It is not the basic but instead the complex. Creativity is what makes you feel and be something more than what you believe you are capable of.
4. The sources of creativity are endless. There are no specific things that spark imagination and creativity and it is impossible to say what exactly initiates a creative response out of somebody. Everybody’s source of creativity is different, and it can stem from the way you were raised, to what you surround yourself with meaning the environment you live in, the journeys you explore, how you take the simple things and give it meaning, what types of culture you immerse yourself in, the type of art you view and admire, your family and children. The possibilities are endless and ill never be able to specifically pinpoint what sources inspire creativity.

The article ‘Deeply Seeing’ examines the processes that occur when creating something meaningful. While discovering something beautiful or special, one must go through a series of steps in order to understand and appreciate its full potential. From the way that I interpreted these steps I see them as being superficial levels of analysis that occurs initially. Soon after one must fully delve into the subject and dig deeper in order to understand its significance and all of its facets that make it beautiful or special. “The artist’s spiritual eye recognizes the subject as a special aspect of the absolute”(Grey, 73). The holy presence of the subject’s unique beauty is its claritas, or radiance”(Grey, 73). One is not able to create something magnificent if you do not experience these levels of analysis. These levels of analysis are also said to be important for the viewer. He or she must go through a spiritual journey as well in order to understand the subjects depth and greatness. “Art is the transmission of states of being”(Grey, 79). This is an excerpt I found very interesting and after reading his creative process while creating his piece ‘Transfiguration’ , I understood what this meant. Your inner-self and outer-self both greatly have to do with what you create. Your state of mind as well as those around you have everything to do with what you create, your conscious as well as subconscious also have everything to do with what you create and in general your insight on the world is a platform for your art. I believe this was the authors main goal; to show this web of complexity that goes into a work of art. Something that represents you as a person and what you feel. Furthermore, Grey explains that art needs to be seen past its traditional value. Pushing the envelope of legitimacy is important, and is something that is necessary in our culture. This failure of accepting ‘illegitimacy’ may possibly relate to the failure of success among artists. However, success is a broad term and many people have varying definitions of what success is. This topic leads Grey into speaking of artistic influence and the importance of considering other art to better your own creativity. Overall art is a spiritual, creative process that pulls in every part of life in order to create something tangible, beautiful, creative and unique. This can not be limited to the superficial but instead you must draw influence from a higher self, and something beyond what you see as legitimate in this world. Grey emphasizes in his book that there is a substantial difference between looking and seeing when creating a work of art.