Category: Unit 07

1. My definition of spirituality was very vague: being in touch with ones own spirit.  I think I might have also considered the part of being in touch with another spirit as well, church related.  I think a person’s spirit contains feelings and desires and therefore spirituality is being connected to those things, and being connected to another spirit you follow, or look up to.  It could be God, or it could be someone else you connect to.
2. After the reading my ideas kind of cross a grey area.  My definition of religion is the ideas you practice or follow.  An example of religious practice would be waiting to have sex till marriage. The difference between spirituality and religion is that for spirituality you connect to the ideas, and religion is practicing them.  In my own opinion a spiritual person spends time looking within and a religious person spends time projecting out what the feel within.  I think they go hand in hand with one another.
3. My definition of creativity is having the ability to think outside of the box.  Being original.  Creativity involves creation, whether it is music, art, photography, landscape, writing etc.  Taking a vision and putting it to work and appealing to any of the senses.  Creativity is the production of something valuable, something others appreciate.  You can find creativity in just about any aspect of creating, whether it is the finished product, the original thought or the process of producing.  I think be creative needs admiration, one cannot call them creative unless someone else agrees.
4. It takes vision.  Not literally, but figuratively to be creative.  It takes a brain, a mind, and a thought.   The brain is the anatomical machine, but the mind is the tool.  The source of creativity comes from looking at, seeing something, feeling something, thinking something and therefor producing as a result.  Taking something external, internal analyzing in the mind and brain, and then externally producing.  The source of creativity is the ability to see beyond the exterior and create something of value.

In this weeks reading about Deeply Seeing, Grey addresses the necessities involved for creating accurate artwork.  Rather than just simply looking at someone or something, and artist must see to create.  The idea of including spirituality into artwork comes from this idea of deeply seeing.  Look past what is on the outside, material, and look into someone’s soul.  The author addresses Saint Bonavantures three eyes of knowing, “The eye of flesh sees the outer realm of material objects; the eye of reason sees symbolically…and the mystic eye of contemplation sees the luminous transcendental realms” (Grey, 73).  Spirituality comes from the later two of Bonaventures three eyes and includes the radiant beauty of the art object. The concept of including spirituality into artwork is brought out with creativity.  The author breaks down creativity into formulation, saturation and incubation, which is the process of finding, seeing and interpreting the subject. Following those are inspiration, translation and integration, which is the process of the artist creating his mental artwork and putting into action and showing it off to the world (Grey, 75). By actually being inspired, saturating, and integrating spirituality into the work rather than just looking and creating, the work becomes much more personalized.  The difference to me, after reading this article, between spirituality and religion is clear.  The article expresses spiritualty as someone’s inside beauty and nature versus what is seen on the outside.  It is the deeper meaning behind the first glance.  Religion is more the organized beliefs of some higher power.  I think religion is seen though examining someone’s spirituality; it is a part of the substance within a person.