Category: Unit 07

http://www.xdzsh.com/g/b/GB066.html

Before I take this course, I generally see art as beautiful things. Of course I know different people have different tastes on beauty, but I personally believe that most people would have similar aesthetics on the painting above, which might be “uhh…”

After I reading some of articles about seeing art through this course, I start thinking this might be art just in a different perspective.  Grey mentioned that we have three eyes to look at a piece of work, and spirituality is something that we can notice only when we see a work by heart and think it deeply. There would have some connection with the work and the audience.

Personally, I feel like “creativity” is a commendatory term, and it should be something nice and fun such as these:

http://creativedispatch.blogspot.com/2012/06/human-creative-painting.html

http://creativedispatch.blogspot.com/2012/06/human-creative-painting.html

However, some people like to think “creativity” as “different”, and they just use some random ideas knock together and all my brain has when I see those things are question marks. Maybe they are absolutely some kind of art but it just beyond me, for example:

http://www.paintingsilove.com/image/show/199036/action-abstract-painting-badmadsad

I would say for me, spirituality is something I really like and well known, and I can get motions from it. Creativity is things new to me and I want to introduce them to others to surprise people.

Again, I think art is one thing which never had exact rule, and this is what makes it so hard to define and so attractive at the same time.

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After reading chapter three in “Art as Spiritual Practice” by Grey, I learn to see pieces of work in different views. Grey discussed the differences between look and see, which are two levels of seeing art. He pointed out we should use our heart instead of just eyes to see works deeply, which I think is really interesting because I feel like this is similar when we see a person. He said that “in the deepest art, a condition of the soul is revealed, one’s heart is opened, and spiritual insight is transmitted to the eye of contemplation” (p.82). Just like when we get along with some people, we firstly would just see them in general and have first impression of them, then we start to actually know them after talking or hanging out, and finally we can only know them very well by knowing their stories and seeing them by heart.

Grey talked through the article that artists use three eyes to see their works, and wholeness, harmony and radiance are three elements to be considered for beauty (Grey). When I see a piece of art, I suddenly will have my first sense of its subject or theme. By now, I just look at it. When I start thinking about the motivation or stories behind this work while I seeing it, I am using my second eye. When I connect it with myself or I can feel the spirit inside of it, that’s the time I really understand this work. In this perspective, I cannot say I totally understand any of the art because I never had such experience to see any of them deeply. Grey mentioned that his painting Transfiguration took him so long to finish it because he wants to express the spirit behind it, which is the hardest stage in creating art. I know I probably would not feel the spirit of it by seeing it now since I still don’t know the artist in person and his stories, but I am very thankful to him for letting me know I actually have more than two eyes to see the world.

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