1. The way I define spirituality is how people connect with a higher power. I think that spirituality is very individual and differs from person to person. Some people like to meditate, some like to do yoga, some pray, some go to religious services, etc. Spirituality helps people cope with the stresses of life. There isn’t one way to find your own spirituality. I do think it is important for each and every person to be spiritual because health definitely has three parts to it. Mind, body, and spirit and people aren’t truly healthy until they figure out the spirituality part of their lives in my opinion.
2. Spirituality definitely does differ from religion although sometimes they do run together. Someone can be both spiritual and religious, but another person can be spiritual but not religious, or even religious but not spiritual. There is nothing wrong with being spiritual and not religious because a lot of people including myself feel that they don’t belong in one specific religion. There are things about each religion that they feel they believe and things that they do not. There are some people who are religious and not spiritual. These people go to religious services and follow their doctrines, but they never actually put in the work to build their spirituality. If people do this, I personally think being religious is a waste of time without the spirituality component.
3. I define creativity as the ability of someone to think out of the box, to think the differently than the way they have been taught in schools to think, and to be able to put their imagination into something tangible. I think creativity has been extremely underrated in my schooling, and I think that everyone has the ability to be creative, we just weren’t taught to practice this part of our brain going through school. I personally think this is why I don’t think I am very creative because I never got the chance to practice it very often.
4. I have a little different view on the source of creativity than the author of the article. I don’t think that the creativity comes from spirituality because people can be amazingly creative without being spiritual at all. I think the source is more so people’s life experiences who make up who they are as a person. These experiences come together to form the view and interpretation that the artist has of the world and creativity comes from their desire to express those interpretations. People who have a narrow interpretation and view on the world, their creativity can be hindered in my opinion.

I thought the author had a very interesting view of artists and what makes them tick. Artists are just trying to share with everyone in their own way how to explain their view of the world. The Creative Process Steps almost say this in a way. I thought this was interesting, and I totally agree with it in that “[For viewers] to understand is to see through the rough image made by the artist’s hand and recognize the transcendental archetype that is the empowering source behind the image” (74). I didn’t really like how the author shared about his time smoking DMT. It almost gave me the feeling that he was supporting taking hard-core psychedelic drugs in order to get an “aha!” moment. When they say, “I was in my future painting and was being given an experience of the state in order to better create it” (79). He is basically saying that he needed to have hallucinations in order to make an awesome art piece. I think that’s a little messed up personally. I have met quite a few people who think they need to take drugs in order to have “spiritual” enlightenment and experiences and I think it is really sad. People should learn to get in touch with their spiritual side without the help of substances unhealthily changing your neurochemistry. What I really liked about this article is it gives people a taste of what life is like for an artist. They have a hard job because finding their true inspiration must be the hardest part of it all. The author states, “Artists must remain open to the tumultuous ocean of potential inspiration, the entire spectrum of consciousness, and yet reduce or essentialize that infinite ocean to a few flowing strokes from their own fountain, providing tangible evidence of inner discovery to the outer world” (80). There are so many possible subjects in the world and so many problems to try and portray, how could you choose which ones you would like to use? Then to have the pressure of your art being called legitimate or not when “the scale of legitimacy is the way that society interprets or confers success upon the work of art. The art object is related to or classified according to the preexisting definitions” (88). What if you as an artist do not agree with these preexisting definitions? Art has evolved a great deal in the last century or so and preexisting definitions of art have been challenged, so how does an artist go about changing preexisting definitions exactly? The next challenge for an artist is probably harder than finding inspiration I could imagine, is finding support and gaining success. It is a tough world to live in as an artist. I thought it was very interesting how the author kept mentioning chakras and energy pathways in the body. It is very similar to the meridian system in Chinese medicine that is used during acupuncture. These energy pathways don’t exist in theory, they have been found scientifically to actually be there. I think the author was right that “the chakra system is simple and has the virtue of visually tying spirit and mind to body” (94). I think the artist’s view of art is very new-aged and different. Most people would think this person was a major hippie, but I think there is something behind what they are saying. There’s a lot about the body that we will never understand, but we also will never understand creativity in people and how artists create. I think they have a point in tying the spiritual part to how artists function and create.