Spirituality for me is the inexplicable bond between people, animals, plants, etc. It’s the understanding that there is an energy that is abundant in us all, which means at the most fundamental level, we are all connect; we are all one. I don’t think our beings are confined to biology, to just protons, neutrons, and electrons. We can’t fully understand it because individually, we are just one small part of the whole. We cannot separate ourselves from the whole in order to understand it, because without us there is no whole to understand #woahdude.

I think that religion is man’s (society’s) attempt at understanding and defining spirituality. There is so much that is unknown about our world. We as the human race have made incredible advancements towards answering the lingering questions of the natural phenomenon around us, but in respect to all that is left to be discovered, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. Religion does a great job of allowing people to feel as though they have a full understanding of the universe they live in. It’s a technical approach to an ambiguous topic.

Creativity, in my opinion, is what separates man from beast. It is the reason that we sit atop the food chain. Without creativity, we would not have created tools, harnessed energy, domesticated animals, planted crops, etc. Every technological and societal advancement we have made is the result of man’s creativity. Creativity is man’s way of interacting and challenging the world around himself/herself without being bound the confines of ignorance.

I don’t know what the source of creativity is. I have a sneaking suspicion that the energy that connects all matter has something to do with it. My best guess is evolution. The evolution of life. Creativity is at the heart of the survival of the fittest. We did not prosper because we were the fastest. A horse or cheetah is much faster than a human. Nor do we prosper because we are the strongest. Gorillas could tear us to shreds. We dominate because we use the best characteristics of ourselves, and combine them in a way that allows us to create ways for us to neutralize our weaknesses and emphasize our strengths.

A few of the artists featured in “Art:21” really helped me to make a connection between the spirituality and art. The most powerful statement, in my opinion, that was made in the video was by the young man who made the satire/critical art of the ideas of spirituality and the corporate culture. He said something along the lines of “the ambiguity is where the spiritual lies”. I myself personally identify as a spiritual person. I don’t subscribe to the beliefs of any one particular organized religion at this time, but I feel that there is something that goes beyond biology that connects us all. The concept of intuition, the internal desire to express creativity, and the inherent need to communicate with fellow man leads me to believe that there is more to life than protons and electrons. I find my beliefs lining up well with his idea that spirituality exists in the unknown or what is not understood. It is not observable by most standards, so therefore it is cloaked in ambiguity.

Art, as we have come do define it the best that we can so far in this class, is a creation that is meant to incite an aesthetic response which garners critical consideration of the how the piece relates to the individual’s world and society as a whole. The young woman who found herself coming back to micro-paintings over and over helped me to understand that art begins after the technical ability ends. Meaning, the talent or abilities of the artist do nothing to identify the artist as such. Rather, the artist’s desire to express emotion, tell a story, or make a social statement with a piece move a painting for example from a pretty decor item to a piece of art. Composition, subject, timeliness, etc; these all contribute to the ability for an artist to connect with the viewer on a fundamentally spiritual level.