Unit 07

1. How do you define “spirituality”?

I think spirituality is something that is invisible and untouchable. Anyone in the world has their own spirituality. I would define spirituality as something like consciousness of one’s own. By going deeply, spirituality is more like the controller of one’s own consciousness. For example, people can move their body with their consciousness. Their consciousness signals one’s brain, and one’s brain signals one’s nerves and muscles to move. Like that, spirituality signals one’s consciousness to think in their own way. Basically, spirituality is the top manager of one’s own.

2. Does spirituality differ from religion?

I think there are differences between spirituality and religion. Although spirituality was originated from religion, I think anyone including who does and does not have any belief in any religion can have spirituality. Religion is basically, I think, learned belief. People go to church to learn about the religion; however, spirituality is something that is inside of you. Spirituality is not the one that we have to learn but it is there already in one’s mind.

3. How do you define “creativity”?

I think creativity is something that comes up when we think out of box. Creativity is something that nobody ever have thought of. It can be applied to anything such as verbal sentence like joke to real products such as escalators or other creative products that people have made. Humans and growing animals with learning things from their circumstances. From these environment, sometimes humans constrain themselves into well-ordered formality. This well-ordered formality prevent people from thinking creatively. Thus, creativity, I think, comes to real life when human come out of the well-ordered formality.

4. What is the source of creativity?

Every person has their own routine of one’s daily life. Once they break their routine of their daily life and when they step out of their well-ordered formality, the creativity comes out. So I think the source of creativity is the movement that they come out of their well-ordered formality. Besides the movement, creativity should include originality as well. Although someone comes out with a great idea, it would not be considered as creative if someone else already made or came out before.

The author started by discussing on the differences between looking and seeing. The author quoted a statement “There is a vast difference between looking and seeing- a difference which is fundamental to the artist’s experience” by Ernes W. Watson. (Page 72) In seeing process, there are several steps to fully seeing things. The author says “seeing determines every aesthetic decision. First, artists see their subject, which inspires them to create. Then there are the technical aspects of seeing, such as an accurate analysis of the formal relationships that the artist wishes to express. Next comes a critical translation phase, where the art-making hand dialogues with the seeing mind. This dialogue can be a halting argument filled with traps and pitfalls or a harmonious song halt flows from the soul of the artist. Frequently it is both. Seeing is also the recognition of meaning.” (Page 72-73) The author also takes some ideas on three eyes of knowing: “the eye of flesh sees the “outer” realm of material objects; the eye of reason sees symbolically, drawing distinctions and making conceptual relationships; and the mystic eye of contemplation sees the luminous transcendental realms.” (Page 73) Each eyes are related to wholeness, harmony and radiance.

The author also states that viewers must go through a mini ego death by placing themselves in the inspired mind of the artists, who themselves are out of their minds and only acting as channels of creative spirit to experience art fully, which the author defines this process as depth perception (Page 74) To generate fine artwork, artists must go through creative process, which consists of many stages: Formulation, Saturation, Incubation, Inspiration, Translation, and Integration. (Page 74) The author also gives an emphasis on legitimacy as well. The author says “the scale of legitimacy is the way that society interprets or confers success upon the work of art.” (Page 88) With creative process, artists started broadening the scale of legitimacy. For example, the author talks about the earth work of Robert Smithson’s dumping of a truckload of asphalt down a hill and earthwork of Joseph Beuys’s planting oaks across Germany. However, it is such a hard work to be succeeded. The author says “most art-school graduates will give up creating art within five to ten years because of the difficulty in gaining legitimate support for their art, either financially or psychologically.” (Page 89)

There is another way of evaluating art: the authenticity. In this week’s reading, the author defines the authentic meaning as “the height or depth of being and awareness that the artist is accessing and transmitting.” (Page 92) To explain the way of evaluating art with the authenticity, the author decomposes physical body of human into complex interlocking systems: the nervous, skeletal, cardiovascular, and lymphatic systems, and the skin. (Page 92) All the body compositions interact with each other by sending and receiving information to and from each other with creating emotional, mental, and astral layers, and the most importantly spiritual layers. (Page 93) With these processes, artists evaluate arts with their spiritual layers in the end. This spiritual layers are related to chakra, which is simple and has the virtue of visually tying spirit and mind to body. (Page 94)

In conclusion, art and creative spirituality are related and connected to each other. He author says “To the artist, the work may be a trace of any of many levels of the artist’s own awareness….To its viewers, the artwork fulfills a variety of private and collective meanings.” (Page 104) With art and spirituality connected, the author concludes by saying “the mystical perspective reveals that we and the world are so profoundly integrated that neither we nor any other thing is truly isolatable.” (Page 106)