1. How do you define “spirituality”?

-Spirituality is ones beliefs and recognition of things that are greater than one’s self. The idea that idea that within someone is more than just bones, muscles, and neural connectors that make up a human but a greater being that dictates personality and connections with people on an emotional level. Spirituality is understanding that there is more to an object than just the physical or meta-physical, but another important aspect that cannot be measured in the physical realm but a spiritual one.

2. Does spirituality differ from religion?

-Yes spirituality definitely differs from religion on many points. Religion is a set of guidance and rules that set a way of living to be different from other ways of living. Spirituality, however, has to do with the actual beliefs, connections, and ideas instead of just merely the actions. Many times religions require spirituality as a part of the rules and guidance but it cannot be governed by the religion, because spirituality is a “heart” issue while religion is a head issue.

3. How do you define “creativity”?

-Creativity is the ability to make something out of nothing. To go further creativity is the ability and extent to which someone can take openness and create a result that has intricacy and uniqueness. An example is when given an open prompt to craft a story, creativity is how and to what detail the story is made. Did the author include a general and generic story that is still very open to more information or did the story have a backstory and go further in describing the detail of what is happening.

4. What is the source of creativity?

-The source of creativity is personality, uniqueness, and overall personalization. The more individualization that someone can bring into a creation the more “creativeness” that person will have. Creativity is creating out of the nothingness. When creating people need to bring in everything that they can to whatever they are creating. Without individualization the person will not be able to create much because they are only able to bring in the common trends and not those along with anything that they may bring on their own.

While reading Art as Spiritual Practice by A. Grey I was struck by a concept that I have heard before and wholeheartedly agree with. I read about how “there is a vast difference between looking and seeing” (Grey 3). This is one of the most important concepts that people grasp in life. The fact that people can be present in the physical but not completely be present from a mental or connection standpoint. When we understand this point we can discern better why some people react one way but others react a completely different way to the same thing. In art this can be a huge determinate of how someone reacts to a piece.

“To see deeply and understand are different from mere looking or observation” (Grey 5). So when a person goes to a gallery and looks at a painting and does not “see deeply” or understand the intention of the painting or the underlying stresses in the brushstrokes that person has a skewed view of the painting. They may think the painting is shallow or not have a good view of it, but this is not because they have not looked deep enough into the piece.

This brings me to a passage in the Bible in Mathew 13:13 when Jesus is talking and he says, “They look, but they do not see. They listen, but they do not hear or understand.” He is speaking of the way he talks in stories and that those stories have so much more depth than just the story at hand. Instead the stories convey a point that he is trying to get across. This is the same with artwork. A picture of a boat could be so much more important than just the boat itself, but instead about the troubled seas that surround the artist and the steady navigation of the captain.