Art and Creativity

Art-making is such an intimate distillation of spirit — going through the motions of creating a work demands concentration, dedication and courage in big and small strokes:  Do you have the clarity to know what is true, the courage to choose it and stand by and behind your choices?

Imagine having this discipline so instilled in you that it translates onto all other aspects of your life — business, health, social.  Right in the center is a spiritual knowing, a pulsating, moving energy of truth that infects you wholly, and those around you.

Wow.

That’s the abstract part. The grounding is in art.  This is the school I want to build.  A school of everyday art-making.  I call it a school because it’s a place of learning and healing, but it can very well be a business, a salon for dialogue and exchanging ideas, an innovation/invention center.  Art is so encompassing, that I use it interchangeably with creativity, science, spiritual. Because it is, first and foremost, problem-solving.

Who will show up?

Spiritual seekers.

Such a tricky word but I still use it because it brings with it two essentials: the asking and the spiritual.

We ask because we don’t know, and we acknowledge that we don’t know.  We are moving, we are not attached to one dogma or philosophy, because we know that questions only lead to more questions.  We flow.

And this asking is driven by the spirit.  It is the spirit that moves and calls us.  What is this spirit?

I tried answering this recently:

To be spiritual is [to be] alive, [it is] an activity, an impulse to pursue truth in all things — relationships, business, health. When faced with a fork in the road, the spiritual person takes out the truth radar. He decides not based on emotion or desire, but on truth:  what is my truth? What is the truth of the situation? What does it ask of me, of the other, of the world?  It is not an easy process to come to a truth.  One has to be driven both by results and process… to be patient. To move forward but also to recognize the lull moments. The negative space. And to be there, actively waiting, preparing. Because there is a rhythm to all things. One takes as long as one takes.

To be spiritual is to acknowledge the world and be present to it 100% — in mind, body, heart.  One observes and listens, but also makes sure he is equipped to do this task– so he clears the space inside and makes room for the new. All the time.  He recognizes the big picture and how we exist in its context.  It’s always about context.  There is a greater scheme of things, a thread that ties everyone and everything together.  I remember a scientific law that puts forward the same idea:  Energy is neither created nor destroyed.  It is transformed.  You can never get rid of what you put out there — be it physical trash or a brilliant idea.  It always goes somewhere, moves into a new space, a new vessel. The spiritual works under the same law:  There is no real death, no delete button.  Everything moves into the other.  Everything is connected.

This is what it means to be spiritual:  to recognize this connecting movement.  Change.  Transformation.  The spiritual person is open; he feels for the pulse of our time over and over again, so he can respond to it over and over again.

Swap the word “spiritual” above with “creative” or “scientific” and everything still holds true.

– from Spirit and Practical