This week I find the reading of creative spirituality is very interesting and give me many inspiration. According to the author Gray. A(2001), he discuss about what is deeply seeing and how can artist use deeply seeing to produce their art works. At first, he mentioned that “seeing occurs when our attention is arrested by a person, object, or scene” which means seeing can probably happen in everybody’s life. He also points out that look and seeing is very different. he cited Ernest W. Watson’s word about seeing and looking which is :”There is a vast difference between looking and seeing–a difference which is fundamental to the artist”s experience.” After that he discuss about how artist looking for archetypal beauty and create their own artworks. Finally, he states that inspiration is also a unique process for every artist which is a “most mysterious step in the creative process.”
As far as I am concerned, I believes that everybody have potentiality to become an artist because they all have eyes which can found luminous points in their life. I also extremely interested by the inspiration because it a kind of thing that only given by god. The author Gray. A like to provide example from his life experience, for me, I would also like to raise my own experience to be an example. As a student, I always need to write something I don’t like or familiar with. If I don’t have inspiration, even if I think the topic is very attractive, I can not write a good article without inspiration. The author also talks about spirit and art. He said that “Spirit brings vision to the artist via the imagination, the multidimensional media center of our minds.” (Page 82)It is why artist always can bring us some sensitive emotional touch. They actually use their heart and soul to create. I think that the word “soul” and “spirit” is connected to the word “inspiration” because those things are very abstract but meaningful for artists. The also also mentioned that inspiration is like an unseen lover, a muse, an angel or demon, or perhaps and entire committee of discarnate entities, who creep up to your imagination and give it the most sumptuous gifts.” (Page 82)
Citation:
Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.
What do you think about someone who is extremely intelligent, yet lacks what society considers artistic ability? Inspiration can take many forms, and a highly intelligent person may be able to cite the incentive for monetary gain as a source of inspiration. I feel that someone who is extremely intelligent has the ability to produce something that can be considered a fine work of art, despite the fact that he or she does not necessarily possess what we might define as artistic ability. I believe that there are many people are able to produce pieces of art (as well as critique others’ pieces of art) that do not involve a “sensitive emotional touch”, while still having the ability to be successful. While someone that lacks the intangible ‘skill’ of artistic production, it is quite possible that an extremely intelligent person has the ability to manipulate the general public’s view of what constitutes as ‘inspiration’ while producing a well-received work of art.
Hi, Shuwan, I do like your post ” I believes that everybody have potentiality to become an artist because they all have eyes which can found luminous points in their life”. If I define a definition of art personally, I think the object is telling an story or enable me to feel its value or emotion will be an art object. I think that is the reason why everyone can be the potential artist because they have their own story. For example, if i have a old, dirty toy shown on the picture. Objectively, someone may feel disgusted with the ugly, dirty appearance. However, if it was what we played in our childhood, it does make sense to our cherish childhood. we may think it is an art object. Actually, these toys are art for me when I saw in some art museum they collect all toys in last 20 years which remind me of my childhood.
Shuwen, I agree with your point that all persons have the potential to be an artist, however I believe that another quality that they must possess is the ability to be able to decipher between the things that can create beautiful, admirable works of art. As Grey claims, “three things are needed for beauty: integritas (wholeness), consonantia (harmony), and claritas (radiance)” (Grey, 2001, p. 75). One must be able to distinguish between something beautiful and ordinary as well as something that has the potential to inspire them to create a work that they are able to commit to and put enough time into. I also found the creative process that Grey discussed in his essay to be very similar to the writing process because of my experience where a good piece of writing was always easier to create and when I actually cared about the topic the way that an artist must be able to translate their inspiration and ideas into their work of art.