I have never really considered myself an artist, or artistic/creative person. The creative process has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. After reading this week’s reading, I have began to gain a better understanding of the creative and spiritual side of creating a piece of artwork. In the article “Art As Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art” Grey’s walk through of his personal experience of all the steps involved in the creative process, really opened my eyes about what it takes to create artwork. I’ve always assumed that there is some reason or explanation behind a piece of artwork, and I’ve always thought that artwork can be interpreted any number of ways by viewers, but I’ve never really had any idea how much spiritual thought really goes into creating a piece of artwork.
One part of this article that I found especially interesting was when Grey discusses seeing art. The very beginning of the article made me stop and realize how often I glance over things without stopping and appreciating it. Grey says that, “Seeing occurs when our attention is arrested by a person, object, or scene. Our mind stops chattering and pays attention. We see both the shape of the thing and its meaning to us” (pg. 72 Grey). It’s incredible to me how we look over so much every day. I look or glance at pieces of artwork everyday while going through my everyday life, but rarely do I really take the time to see them. Grey also talks about how only the deepest art connects to us spiritually. This made me realize how a majority of the common art we see in every day life, is not really deep art that connects to us on a spiritual level, but really connects to us more on a social level. Grey refers to Stephen Dedalus and states that, “improper or lower works of art inspire movement in the viewer and that the higher or proper works of art inspire static contemplation” (pg. 82 Grey). This really made me realize how we rarely see proper works of art, and instead and faced with improper and lower works of art on a regular basis.
HI, I got the same feeling as you. I have never considered the artist’s spirituality before. But after this week’s reading, I think artist’s experience is a significant part of artist’s spirituality. Artists experience is often accompanied by strong emotional activities, so it is an indispensable part of art creation. Everyone artists has different experience, that’s the reason why artworks are unique.
I had the same feeling as you did about the beginning of this week’s article, the seeing art work portion. It is really interesting to think that we see so many things everyday that are art, yet we do not even realize. It can be something as simple as the detailing of a house that may have taken weeks to decide on. I think that many people take art work for granted since we are surrounded by so many beautiful things everyday. Reading this article made me want to stop and observe things more, to learn to see the beauty, art, and work that are put into the simplest things in our everyday life.