Purposes:
-Become familiar with ways in which spirituality influences artists
-Discuss the differences between spirituality and religion
-Examine spirituality as a generative force and a well spring for creativity
Original post:
How do you define “spirituality”?
Personally, I think spirituality is used to determine person’s ability. And it is not an innate thing. You may have spirituality when you suddenly got into the spirit of things. Also, I think spirituality has another meaning. It’s refers to mystery. Moreover, spirituality may control people’s thoughts; just like the human beliefs. We can’t really know what is the spirituality; every one got different answers on it. Maybe when can feel it at church, forest, temple or somewhere.
Does spirituality differ from religion?
For me, I think spirituality is differing from religion. For example, in Asia, there are lots of people believe in Buddha. In their life, ahimsa, nonviolence are the basic principles. When you doing a good thing, you will get the good return, but if do not do so, you will get the bad results. And the Buddhists call this karma. On the other, Islam has the different principles. Muslim never eats pork, they think pork is very dirty, but they eat other meat, like chicken, beef, etc. Thus, spirituality is various in different religions.
How do you define “creativity”?
In generally, I think creativity means you create something unique, the unique ideas, innovation or invention. It’s one of human’s ability. It could be exists in anywhere. For example, Newton discovered the law of gravity. Designer shows their collections in fashion’s week. Artists draw a painting. Mom’s cooks a special dinner. Those are involving creativity. Creativity does not have a fixed form, but we would like to define it as a unique thing or unique thoughts, which means unprecedented.
What is the source of creativity?
The source of creativity is from our life or from our experiences. But every one got different sources. I saw a music TV program before; the singer called Leehong, he always went to forest to find his inspiration. For him, the sounds are the source of creativity. He records birds’ sounds, stream sounds, etc. For me, I do not the exactly source of my creativity. Sometimes, I got creativity from TV or the Internet, but some times I got creativity from outdoor. So I think the source of creativity is also variety.
Reflection:
From this week’s assignment, I learned few things. The first one is artists observe objects, and then they put their feelings or understanding into objects, after that step, artist create artwork with their minds and souls. We can call it spirituality. Just like Grey mentions in his article, “ There is a vast difference between looking and seeing- a difference which is fundamental to the artist’s experience”(72). Moreover, Grey states, “ Every artist has his or her unique process of inspiration” (80). So artist’s aesthetic experience is very important. Artist shows their personality, creative, value or attitudes on artwork. Thus, spirituality influences artists.
Furthermore, there are some differences between spirituality and religions. For me, I think spirituality is not an innate thing; people may have it when they suddenly got into the spirit of things. It’s a feeling or understanding. It’s cannot be spread. But religion is a human belief. It may control people’s thoughts or mind. However, most religions are offers positive attitudes to people. Like Buddha. Ahimsa, nonviolence are the basic principles of it.
Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.
Future:
I love painting so much. I hope one day, I could go to forest and sit there and look around. I think there is a good place to found spirituality. Natural always clean our minds and bring surprise to us. If I got spirituality, I will paint in there.
Table of Contents:
Artifact 4: Personal Adornment
Artifact 7: Creative Spirituality
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