ABSTRACT

The primary contribution of a spiritual approach to art making is the opportunity to experientially dissolve dualism. Spiritual practice is undertaken out of the belief in the existence of a force, power, energy, or reality greater than the individual self, and the related belief that it is possible and desirable to experience our relationship with this reality. This force or energy can be called God, the Universe, Nature, or Creativity, among other names. In the words of William James (1902/1961) in The Varieties of Religious Experience, there is a “belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto” (p. 59). Making art can become a means to perform this adjustment, as it creates a path to that unseen force which is easily traveled by way of image making.