I choose to respond the reading “Art as Spiritual Practice” by Grey. In this article, the author Grey mainly argues that art is a kind of spiritual practice and he discusses the relationship between art and spirituality. In addition, he introduces that how we think about an object when we look at it. I am really interested in the latter part of how we look at objects. All of us can see massive objects in our life but it is difficult to recall most of things that we saw. Grey introduces a three eyes theory and the three eyes are “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 realm” (p.73). This theory is really interesting to me.
According to the definitions of three kinds of eyes, I think I usually just can apply the eye of flesh and the eye of reason when I see an object in my daily life. I can see the object’s appearance and to think about how it different with others but I almost cannot see more from the object. I think most of people are similar with me but mystic eye of contemplation is normal and necessary for those talented artists. As Grey argues, “artists need to be able to see on each level in order to bring technical beauty, archetypal beauty, and spiritual beauty to their work” (73). In order to be an excellent artist, the third eye is essential because artists need to see more upon the appearance of the objects to obtain inspiration to create art. For the most of ordinary people, like me, I think the mystic eye of contemplation is not necessary for our life. Of course, I think my life would be more interesting if I can apply the mystic eye of contemplation in life.
Reference: