The Spirituality of Art

Noelle Boughton

The Spirituality of Art

Posted on: 11/13/2008 13:25

As a writer who always works on a computer, I love to take weekend studio tours to savour the shapes and colors of artists’ work. It’s a great visual antidote to my grey world of Word documents, and I always return feeling refreshed and ready to write again.

But I didn’t realize until recently that you can access your spirit through art. I learned that from Lois Huey-Heck, co-author of The Spirituality of Art, when she did a workshop with an international editing team I was working with.

Lois asked us to pick one of the posters we’d taped to the walls to choose for the curriculum we were developing. I picked “Starry Night” because it had a purplish-blue wash of star-studded sky above a serene lake. She then had us meditate on the picture, savouring each aspect of it and watching for anything that drew our attention. For me, it was a figure I could see emerging from the light at the centre of the sky.

We were to meditate until the image entered us, following whatever thoughts emerged, then contemplate what we discovered and respond to it with our own art. I’d never been good at art in school, so initially resisted – but soon found the practice cracked open an inner place of knowing different than anything I’d experienced before.

At the time, I’d been struggling to decide whether I’d stay with the team. I believed in its mandate, but the part-time job had turned into more than full-time hours with no more pay, so I didn’t have time to do any other work or finish writing my book.

But, it wasn’t until I did my own art that day that I discovered what my spirit was trying to tell me. I painted a series of pictures that started with this lone figure stepping into the dark water, reflecting my lonely struggle, then walking up on to a green, grassy bank with a huge sun, showing me there was hope ahead. Finally, I drew six figures clumped far behind me, and, looking at them, suddenly realized I’d already mentally left the team. I went home and soon resigned.

That lesson taught me art can access places that words can’t. It’s more primal, more connected to our desires, and it propelled me on to the writing and editing I love.

People are beginning to look at art in a new way, and incorporate it into their spiritual and congregational lives. Our national church held a June workshop that drew 120 people who learned how to meditate on art and what part art can play in spiritual and congregational renewal. The United Church Observer has also published an article on how congregations are engaging art to enhance their worship and community experience.

So, if you’d like to see if art can help you connect more with your spirit, check www.spiritualityseries.com and click on The Spirituality of Art. Chapter One describes this meditation process, which you can do at home or in a gallery. And, if you take time to respond in art, you, too, may be surprised at what your spirit is trying to tell you.

Comments

Eileenrl

Posted on: 11/16/2008 07:58

Regina Coupar also has a wonderful book out on art and spirituality. I met her several years ago. She lives in the Halifax area - I have also heard her speak - she does workshops also.

sitka

Posted on: 04/19/2009 21:19

Serious art, in my mind anyway, tries to deal with beauty and truth. And other stuff. More than sentimental beauty, more than pleasant truth. Everybody has to do his /her own trip into the work of art..find unique meanig and message, which is not always there---not for me anyway....and I always appreciate when somebody with knowlege about a specific piece helps me to decipher it - especially abstract art. A bit like analyzing a poem - it can be magic once you discover the message!

Have you seen Starry Night (or similar title) by Van Gogh - a street scene, I guess in France, showing deep blue sky and lots of stars, just like the scene you described.