How do you define “spirituality”?

I feel that spirituality stands as a basis for our personality and character. It could stem from our personal beliefs or life experiences in which we base our opinions and decisions off. I think our spirituality could come from our religious beliefs or anything that we believe in. It feeds our souls by allowing us to define who we are as a person. What is so amazing to me is that we have the ability to grow in our spiritual ways either through new experiences or through religious ideology.

Does spirituality differ from religion?

I think spirituality grows from our religion. Even if we choose not to have a religion it still influences our spirituality. I believe these two play hand in hand with one another. I believe what we believe in heavily influences our spirits. We don’t necessarily need religion to stand as a basis for our beliefs. Our religion could be based on something other than a god per-say but rather on ideology of the great philosophers before us.

How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity is our inventive imagination that allows us to provoke our thoughts and ideas in a way that is out of the ordinary. Our creativity is the formulation of ideas, theory, or even a way to solve a problem. It takes a great deal of imagination and your ability to think outside of the box to show creativity. This is a very abstract concept that I think could be synonymous to that of our definition of art.

What is the source of creativity?

My source of creativity are probably my past experiences. It is easy for me to take my past experiences and think about what could be improved in that moment in time or for the future. It is also influenced by my environment consisting of people, ideas, as well as ideas from different people. I love hearing other people’s thoughts to provoke some of my own. I think it is very resourceful and brilliant idea that we as people have the idea to feed off of each other’s thoughts and insights.

What particularly drew me into this excerpt was when the author, A. Grey, started to talk about his experience with DMT and how his trip influenced the outcome of his painting. Through this he saw a better and clearer vision of what he wanted his piece to look like as he “[brought] the inner solution of [his] artistic problem to an outward form” (pg. 78).

The way he found inspiration from “seeing” other artist’s work was interesting. I like how he mentioned the idea of looking at works from Van Gough and Michelangelo and hearing their voices inside of his head. Grey talks about the idea that drawing is an outlet for your spirituality and way of seeing into some deeper meaning of what your art is interpreting. He adds how he has not “completely ‘seen’ a work of art until [he’s] drawn it” (pg. 87). As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If I was a better at drawing, I think I would thoroughly enjoy the ability to draw what I was thinking rather than just saying words to verbally expressing what I feel or think.

Grey then proceeds to discuss the idea of the chakra’s existing in each and every one of us and how each chakra will influence the way we interpret and perceive the world around us. The idea that there are vibes that either the art, the people we surrounds ourselves with, or our environment have on us as individuals help us grow. Grey brings up the fact that we feel vibes from reading artist’s work allows us to appreciate the piece at a higher level of cognition (pg. 97). This brings me to the piece written by Ellen Dissanayake when she mentions art having a psychological or emotional pull on us that cause us to generate our idea of art (pg. 15). I think our spirituality has an influence over the way we perceive art. We stem our spirituality from personal beliefs and experiences, which then influences our perspectives on art.

Dissanayake, E. (1991). What is art for? In K. C. Caroll (Ed.). Keynote adresses 1991 (NAEA Convention), (pp.15-26). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.

Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.