World of Art

1. How do you define “spirituality”?

Spirituality to me is something that can differ myself with other people. I think different people will have different definition of spirituality. But related to my own understanding about spirituality, it is a term that can describe the internal activity of my mind. Spirituality actually can link my behaviors with my internal mind which can produce a resource to guide my behaviors as well as to track the reasons of my behaviors. I think it is very hard to produce a general definition for spirituality. However, each person can define spirituality not that hard by explore his or her psychological activities and inner values.

      2. Does spirituality differ from religion?

I think spirituality will act at a similar way compared with religion, especially for individuals. I believe spirituality and religion actually engaged with each other in many fields. Especially for those people who are religious, they values and the way to think and solve problems will be highly associated with their beliefs, spirituality and religion. Also, spirituality sometimes can strengthen the value of religion of each individual. I think the biggest difference between spirituality and religion is that spirituality will have bigger influence on guiding individuals and religion can sometimes guide a large group of people even the whole society.

       3. How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity to me is a type of activities or abilities that produce new and valuable things. Creativity refers to both tangible and intangible creations. I believe creativity is essential in many especially in electronic products industry. Related to art, creativity is also very important during the production stage. Artists want to create their own ways to deliver their different messages to the audiences and they have to engaged with their creativity. In addition, creativity sometimes can define as the ability to break the traditional barriers and expand into new areas.

       4.What is the source of creativity?

I think the source of creativity can be found whenever and wherever. The source can be anything both tangible and intangible such as a physical objects, an idea, a message, an experience, or even a word of mouth. I believe there are enough source of creativity out there but lack of ability and attention to identify and find those sources act as the major problems in the creation process. In the reading, Grey explained “the creative process” in the process of creating art works. I think in the inspiration stage is the place that creativity engage the most. During this stage, artists have to identify the source of creativity and produce something that they believe will inspire themselves as well as the audiences. I think the useful way to help people to identify those source of creativity is to be aware of many little things in the daily life that related to the purpose of creation, because those things could transfer to the sources of creativity or help people to produce some creative ideas.

Reflection:

By creating this artifact, I was able to explore about how creativity and spirituality produce effects for artists during their creation processes. From the reading, I learned “The Creative Process” from Grey and through his example of personal experience, I was able to track how he pass each step during the whole process. I also have the chance to explore and compare each step during the creative process. I paid extra attention in the translation phase, because I think this stage this stage will take a long time during the process. Grey stated that the translation phase is bringing the inner solution of artistic problem to an outward form. (Grey, 78) He also stated “This seemed like the appropriate answer among the many that occurred to me. Work on the piece lasted almost a year.” (Grey, 79) During translation phase, artists need to pick a solution among many options and think about if the answer is the most appropriate one. I also pay attention to inspiration stage, because I think during this stage, artists will finish a very difficult job which is build a effective way to delivery their solution to the audiences.

This artifact enhances my understanding toward how spirituality produce effects to the artists and how spirituality engage with religion and creativity. I think spirituality is established based on people’s value and beliefs and it will reflect on how people create things. Just like spirituality, creativity is also related to the values, knowledge and background of people. I think what I learned the most in building this artifact is I learn that how my spiritual world connect with my creativity.

Learning Goals in the Future:

In the future, I will continually explore the connection between people’s spiritual world with their creative activities. Also I will compare people with different spirituality and figure out how different spirituality will produce different effects. I will identify the spirituality of my family and started to think about how the spiritual world changed of the my family and how the changes produce effects on my family. In addition, I also want to expand my understanding toward the engagement between spirituality and religion.

Bibliography:

Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.