Art and Spirituality - DOC

							                                  Art and Spirituality



       “It is the fire that burns in the hidden desire of both art and spirituality to name

       something that is beyond naming” Dr Pam Allen-Thompson (1)

   How do you put the song of a bird or the rush of the wind in art form? What happens

when you see a sunset or the view from the top of a mountain? Can you paint the feeling

you have or the sounds you here? Can you make a sculpture of a moonlit night? The artist

attempts to create an image of the feelings, sights, and sounds of their world. The artist's

work originates in the part of his being that desires to relate physical images of the

intangible. The artist wants his work to invoke more than a mere reproduction of what the

five senses experience. The observer of the art is moved or inspired when the artist

successfully captures the moment in time, in its completeness, expressing the tangible

and intangible.

   Experiencing God beyond the five senses is the objective of spiritual formation. The

spiritual person wants to see themselves as God sees them. Words like awe and wonder

express their experience. The spiritual person is changed, renewed, empowered,

encouraged and given peace. As the artist, the spiritual person seeks to experience and

express the intangible. The spiritual person desires to be in the presence of the unseen

God, to know God intimately, to be drawn into the “cloud of unknowing”.

   Art and spirituality are similar in the source of expression, yet their modes of

expression are different. Art is expressed through paint, sculpture, dance, music, drama,

literature, architecture, and invention. Spirituality has ritualistic expression through

prayer, contemplation, meditation, Bible reading, service, and worship.
   There are common threads between art and spirituality. They both reach inside to

express or reach something that is beyond what they already know. Dr. Pam Allen-

Thompson relates three areas art and spirituality are alike.

        1. They are appreciated and experienced individually and thus will be expressed

        differently by each of us.

        2. Since both have many varied and wonderful expressions, no one could even

begin to        grasp the full range of what is available to them in this realm. The more

we experience of        art and spirituality, the greater our capacity to see how much more

awaits our exploration.         3. Both originate from the same place—from that part of

our brain that wants to be      playful and risky and adventurous and at the same time, it

wants to be seriously engaged           in savoring life (3).

   Spirituality is to belief as art is to science. One is fluid and growing and the other is

concrete and stable. Both spirituality and art are creative and open to change of

expression. Both seek to express the inexpressible and experience the intangible. Andrej

Tisma in his article Art and Spirituality, writes, “Art is a result of inspiration, and

inspiration has a spiritual nature. So art is in its base spiritual activity.” (1) Tisma

illustrates how in prehistoric culture, priest and artist were often one and the same. Art

was an expression of the spiritual understanding of the culture. The artist priest mediated

between the spiritual and material world expressing in image the unseen forces at work in

the natural world. This connection has been evident throughout religious history across

cultures. Some artists continue to attempt to mediate between the spiritual and physical.

Artists use their work to transmit to the observer their inspiration for the artwork.
   Worship is our response to God. Art is our response to life. There is a merging of the

two that seems natural. Barbara Bowen writes, “Creativity is often misunderstood to be

an act of the ego and intellect. In truth, the creative process is fundamentally a spiritual

one. When the imagination is in flight, we are moved to give form to this inner life.

Creating charges us with energy. We are grounded in our bodies, yet the creative act

takes us beyond ourselves. We exit the world of reacting and enter the delicious world of

creating, where we lose track of time. By acting, we bring spirit into matter… When we

engage our creativity, we engage our spirituality.” (2)

   In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is quoted as saying, “If you bring forth what

is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within

you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” (#70) Whether or not these are the

actual words of Jesus is not of consequence. What really matters is that the Christian

church of the first century thought they were and thereby believed that something vital

takes place when we are able to “bring forth” what is “within us.” Art and spirituality do

this.

   An Indian writer of the Hindu religion expresses the spirituality of art. “Art is a

collaboration between God and man…This story of art has been largely the story of

man’s continuing search of meaningful marks for shape, movement and image, that can

most eloquently express his experience of the inner and outer world.”(1) Swami

Omkarananda’s paper Art as a Way to God–Experience, states that “All creative activity

proceeds from conditions of high inspiration.” (3) He puts forth the argument that art is

not primarily for aesthetic enjoyment, but rather the primary function of art is to extend

human vision to God. “What a person with the right insight sees, bears the touch of the
divine artist…We cannot imitate Him, but since He made us, we have in us…the

inexorable urge, to turn everything to the perfection that He Himself is. Art, then, is not

art unless it is governed by this urge that we have inherited from the supreme artist that

God is.” (10)

   From the beginning of human history, mankind has used art to express spiritual life.

Paintings on the walls of caves and ceilings of cathedrals have this common thread.

Monks in the abbey and inner city urban mural painters are brothers in their quest to

illustrate the passion and vision that comes from within them. In personal spiritual quest,

the creative arts have been a fruitful method to a deeper relationship with God. Whether

the arts are used to relate a particular spiritual experience, or to enhance or become a

conduit to experience God, they are vital in spiritual formation.