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‘Unit 07’ Category

  1. Spirituality Essay!

    August 6, 2014 by meunier@uoregon.edu

    1)   I define spirituality as the belief that there is something bigger to the world than what we make of it. A spiritual person tries to better understand what surrounds him, including people but more importantly nature. Being spiritual means you see yourself as part of a bigger picture and you try your best to play a role in it. I see someone who meditates as being a spiritual person. He or she realizes that there is more to this world than what is physically around us and he or she looks within himself or herself to see it.

    2)   In my opinion spirituality and religion differ, but the basic concepts remain the same. I think that religion is more rules based with certain ideals that each person must follow. In my understanding of religion, there is generally a deity or god like figure as well. When it comes to spirituality, it is more about finding context within yourself rather than looking at certain rules as guidance. Spiritual people do not necessarily need a bible or Karan for example; instead they go off of what feels correct. They are similar because both religion and spirituality look at the world and believe that there is something larger that we cannot see

    3)   Creativity is the ability to think and act outside the box and be a trailblazer. A creative person does not think like a normal person or they would not be creative. Instead they have a unique way of thinking and solving things that make them stand out. Creativity is also the ability to try something out, knowing that there is a big chance that it will fail. A creative person is likely wrong more than they are right, or fail more than they succeed but that does not stop them.

    4)   The source for creativity in my opinion is in a child’s upbringing. If a child watches television like other kids and goes about their childhood playing sports with others (pretty much describes my childhood) they will most likely not be the most creative. Instead they will have a similar way of thinking about and solving issues as their peers. A creative person must have a unique upbringing, giving them a different outlook on life. That is why people who grow up in different cultures often times solve the same problem completely differently.


  2. Creative Spirituality

    August 3, 2014 by meunier@uoregon.edu

    This week’s topic of spirituality is something that I find extremely interesting, especially when we are talking about art. For me art is something that should evoke some type of spiritual feeling, even for the non-religious. The assigned article for this week by Grey, goes deep into the spiritual side of art, something that he is obviously extremely passionate about. My favorite section in his piece is the “seeing art” section where he talks about the different stages of first appreciating art. The first part is seeing the physical piece of artwork with the naked eye. The second stage is seeing a “harmony of sensation that stirs emotion”. The third and final stage of seeing art according to Grey, is when the “spiritual insight is transmitted to the eye” (82). He mentions that only the deepest art, which I take to mean best in this case, can evoke step three.

    The reason that I find this passage so compelling is because I think he has found a way to measure good art, something that is hard to do. Every artist can get to step one and have his or her art physically seen by another person. The next step is a little more difficult and not every artist can accomplish this. The last step, to have the artist’s spiritual insight transferred to the person viewing the painting, is much harder and very rare. That is why only the best artists can do this, making them elite and wealthy.

    Another part of the article that I found interesting was on page 87 when Grey mentions, “artists develop advanced seeing because their life’s work depends on it”. While this may sound somewhat extreme, the more I think about it the more I realize it to be true. Artists are judged on their ability to pass on their message to others, thus they must have this ability to “see” art and understand how you can convey a feeling in it. I know that this would be near impossible for me at first but if I spent every day of my life studying art, the ability to see how artists portray their emotions on paper would come to me I believe. This has been my favorite subject so far and the article was extremely interesting.

    Christian


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