In this article, Alex Grey talks about the spirituality of art, and he also talks about the visual point of art. He says that, “The artist is possessed by a creative force, overtaken by a vision and driven to create.” The spirit of an artist is very important for their creations. When you want to create an art, you should have a blueprint in your mind. This is like you just copy the picture that has shown in your mind, or the picture is still in your mind. For an artist, he must have the ability of imagine and watching. I think most artists are good at watching, they watch what things happened around them. They always pay attention on the details, the thing that people will ignore. Artists could see the spirit of things, and they also could use their artwork to express what they have seen. The spirituality also depends on what the people experience and what they believe. A good artwork most depends on an ego. Ego is very important for an artist to create. One thing is the artwork reflects what the artist wants to express. The other one is the artwork could be accepted by people, and they also give the artist good feedback. I kind understand the chakras that Alex Grey describes in his article. He mentions that there are seven chakras in human’s body, and he also declares that “The development of the next for chakras depends on awakening an awareness of the higher self, beyond the ego, toward higher self-knowledge and self-realization.” This means a good artist should improve himself by knowledge and accomplishment. This progress will cost very long time in people’s life. That’s why some artists created some great artwork in their old age, like Van Gogh. Artworks that have spirituality need the precipitation of time.
What do you mean when you say that good artwork depends on an ego and that an ego is very important for artists to create?
I felt that in Grey’s article he was saying that artists need to let go of their egos. He says “As we glance at life, we are often wrapped in a angle of our own thoughts and judgements. This is the normal self-contained state of ego” (pg 71). I think what he means by this is that our ego is like a wall that stops us from “seeing” things and limits us to “looking at things. Grey say later that “In order to experience art full 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” (pg 74). I think what he means by this is we have to break down our egos and get rid of them in order to be able to open up our minds to the spiritual world of art. Once we do this we can connect to art and the artists in a much more meaningful , spiritual way.