Artifact 5- Creative Spirituality

The goals of unit 7 were to learn about how spirituality can influence art and how religion and spirituality are both similar and different. The assigned reading “The Mission of Art” by Alex Grey discussed an artistic process that relates to spirituality. Grey described his journey as an artist and the aspects of it that related to spirituality. I have always thought that in order for someone to be an artist they definitely need to have a spiritual side to them. Being an artist requires lots of creativity, something that goes hand in hand with spirituality. Artists must access their spiritual side in order to create something that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but has mean behind it as well. Creating spiritual art means that there is more to the art then what meets the eye, there is a powerful meaning behind what is created and how it was created. Like I discussed in my first response to the reading, what stood out to me most was that Grey’s most spiritual piece came to him in a dream. This is an amazing way for one to create an art piece because it is something that they were not able to access when they were awake.

In this unit we had to answer four questions about religion, spirituality, and creativity. We first had to define spirituality, then had to identify the difference between religion and spirituality, provide a definition of creativity, and then discuss the source of creativity. This exercise helped me to come to an understanding of what all three of these words mean to me, what I associate with each one, and the similarities and difference between them all. When first doing this assignment I considered spirituality and religion to be one in the same, as if those words could be used interchangeably. As I started to answer the questions, I came to the realization that these words are actually very different. Although these two things are similar, the core of them is very different. Religion has a heavy structure to it, whereas spirituality has more to do with the individual and their personal perspective and ideas. Most religions are based off a holy book that has all the stories of that particular religion. There are guidelines that one must follow based on the religion. Spirituality is about being in tune with ones personal beliefs and living their life the way they prefer. Both religion and spirituality have a lot to do with the unknown and accepting it as a part of life. They both require in believing in things that they have never experienced personally or seen before. Believing in something that is unknown made me think a lot about unit 6, the art of horror. In unit 6 I learned that those who enjoy horror films are trying to access a part of life that is unknown to them. They are focusing on experiencing something that they may never experience and may never want to experience in the real world, that is only accessible to them through shows and films. It is interesting to think that some people are so able to accept the unknown as a part of life and others want are not okay with that, they want answers to things they do not know about.