Creative Spirituality
In the reading for this week, Alex Gray’s The Mission of Art, he is really trying to make a distinction between looking and seeing. “There is a vast difference between looking and seeing- a difference which is fundamental to the artist’s experience.”(73) He says that seeing determines every aesthetic decision, it is our source for finding inspiration. I think what the author is saying is that when we notice something that exists in space and time, we are looking at it. Looking is pure sensory perception with no further thought given to what the object is beyond what it looks like. It is simply noticing that the thing exists. Seeing is going beyond just looking, when we are seeing something we are really seeing it for what it is, what it is “as such.” When we apply this to art we talk about deeply seeing, when we are deeply seeing something we are seeing the art and the beauty. This is how the artist gets inspiration, they are seeing the aesthetic in the object and that is what allows them to create art.
The author also talks about the creative process; inspiration is a part of this process, however it is the most important part. The author lays out six steps of the creative process which includes; formulation, saturation, incubation, inspiration, translation, and interrogation. The goal through all of this for the artist is to reach a state mind where the “art flows irresistibly through them”(80) This almost sounds like the Christian idea of the holy spirit flowing through you. I think this is what the author means by the spirituality of art, where the artist who is creating a masterpiece is in a state where they are almost possessed by their art, they have the idea of the art in them and then through this spiritual state they physically manifest that art by reaching deeper access this spirituality which cant be seen, but can be felt.
Citation:
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/aad250shuette/files/2010/09/7-grey-1xrwu9h.pdf
Filed under Unit 07 | Comments (3)3 Responses to “Creative Spirituality”
I too was very fascinated by the difference between looking and seeing. I believe looking is not even processing what the object is that we are looking at. We see it and know it is there, however we do not take the time to think about what we are looking at. When we are seeing something, we process all the information and take the time to form thoughts and perceive specific situations. With the creative process, I believe the key idea is time. The incubation stage is one of the most important because taking the time to process the information before forming inspiration is highly important. I would argue that taking the time to get the inspiration might be more important than the actual inspirational step itself. I do like how you tied in the Holy Spirit as a part of the inspiration. It is the best way to describe inspiration as the Holy Spirit is something that hits you and feels extremely impactful. I enjoyed reading your post a lot and it was extremely fascinating to see your take on it.
I agree with your interpretation of the authors description between looking and seeing. Looking is noticing an object and acknowledging its physical presence. Seeing is not only acknowledging its presence, but also understanding what is being seen. To see something the viewer must put themselves into the artist shoes to help fully realize and fully understand it. It helps the viewer to realize why certain decisions were made in creating the piece at hand.
I agree with you that the six steps of the creative process is very important. The goal, as you indicated, is to let the art flows through.I think that the spirituality in art could be very mysterious and hard to guess. The artist could be very selective in who and what he wants to convey the idea to or what idea he wants to express. Other times, the artist could be unintentional in conveying the meanings and spirituality is something came out natural.