Spirituality and Creativity
Thoughts on Christine Valters Paintner’s The Relationship Between Spirituality and Artistic Expression.
We live in a goal oriented society, where we trade the process of the journey for the sake of the destination. Our conditioning, which is consistently reinforced in every facet of our lives by the system under which we live, leads us to believe that the latter—the destination—is what truly matters; once we internalize this concept, we become completely detached from our internal world as we focus on achievements in the external. We operate as robots in this mechanical world we have built, despite the fact we are anything but. How could we ever hope to feel whole if we dismiss such a big part of who we are as beings? And more importantly, how do we create a shift where we can embrace all that is beautiful—our humanity and the journey of life itself?
To claim that “art is the answer” to the problems we face in the 21st century may seem like a simplistic answer to a complex a situation, but as Paintner highlights, “when the goal is process over product, the arts can create a safe space for experimentation and for exploration of new possibilities.” Moreover, she says, “we live in a time desperately hungry for new ideas and visions, new possibilities in a world gone awry with war and ecological destruction.”
Paintner’s statements echo discussions in creative circles, where we often talk about ways of being and thinking that can help us birth a new paradigm, and how we cannot invent solutions to our problems with the same brain and/or thought process that created them in the first place. This is precisely why art, which prompts us to access our creative imagination, allows us to step beyond what we know and to explore the unknown—the only way to create a reality/paradigm that does not yet exist. Creativity, she suggests, allows us to see “beneath the surface of things to the depth dimension of the world” and to “open ourselves to the newness that stirs there; developing a relationship to mystery; [and] cultivating a sense of spontaneity and playfulness.”
Paintner then goes on to describe the connection between art and spirituality, stating, “Engaging in the arts as a spiritual practice means honouring the process of meaning-making, of cultivating a relationship to mystery” because creativity “is an intangible human capacity of a transcendent nature—it moves us beyond ourselves in a similar way to spirituality.” This concept was also explored by Robert Wuthnow, who asserts that, “[it is] only a slight exaggeration to say that artists have increasingly become the spiritual leaders of our time since it is especially artists who reflect deeply on personal and spiritual concerns.”
When one dives within and connects with the world that dwells in the depths of their soul, they are able to bring forth truths that resonate with all, for they are giving voice to a reality that is as personal as much as it is collective—perfectly capturing the feeling of Oneness that lies at the core of spirituality.
Art encourages the exploration of what lies beyond our senses, opening the door to a different reality that centres us as creators who channel new-found visions, knowledge and inspiration into our present world. We often hear that “art is life,” because, much like human life is created, art allows us to bring into existence a new and original part of ourselves. This, then, is the beginning of a new paradigm—one that lives within first, and is manifested in the physical thereafter.