Questions on art, spirituality and creativity. #1

My granddaughter is in the Forever Friends anthology. She is now a freshman in college and this morning she sent me seven questions on art, spirituality and creativity and has given me permission to post them here.

Megan said, "Feel free to put these on your author page. i think many writers would like these too. it would really get them thinking about these ideas which drive any creative work."

I'm going to post them one at a time as long as people answer. If not, that is all right, but doing this really put my creative thinking and writing goals in order.

#1. How do you define art, creativity, and spirit in your own words based on your life xperinces and your art?

11/12/2009

Carol..

I believe we inherit our talents, even though
I've looked at family history , yet I can't find anyone in
my family's background who wrote, painted on canvas.
I did find one relative (deceased) who loved photography
and I still have the baby photo he did, looks like sepia. So
I'm assuming my talent lies within myself. As a young kid
I loved drawing, writing stories. It wasn't till I got older I
did photography. It always amazes me how I can look at
the computer screen and see what I'm writing as a movie
in action, I don't know any other way to explain this, maybe
because I have a strong imagination ? When a book is
finished and published I look at it in amazement and think
to myself " Did I do this ?," sort of a shock to me, then I
remember how hard it was to start page 1 and when I get
to page 100 I'm still amazed all this came out of me...I know
it all sounds silly ?...

Cheers.Joe

Sometimes when I'm writing, especially when writing poetry - or maybe it's just that poetry is what comes out - I get lost in the flow, and am surprised at what the pencil does to the page, and at the message that appears. It is at those times when I believe spirit is involved in the process and the product. At those times, I believe that creativity, which, I think, is any process of bringing out something from within oneself, can become art, which I see as the product of creativity working through spirit, and spirit is our connection to a universal truth.

Ann

Thanks Joe and Ann.

My answer:

Art is anything created and can include many mediums including painting, sculpture, writing, music and inventions. Creativity’s official definition on my computer dictionary is “the ability to use the imagination to develop new and original ideas or things.” Imagination, development and newness are the key words in this definition and how I see creativity. Spirit comes from somewhere outside of what we see, hear or know with our senses. To me it is a divinity and available to me giving me comfort and peace as well as access to new ideas and imagination. It is interesting to see these three words together, and believe they belong together. Sometimes art comes from a spiritual place within one. When I wrote my books about my great-grandmothers, sometimes it felt like they were looking over my shoulder putting the words from my fingers to the keyboard. Sometimes words and writing comes when I least expect it, and won’t come at all when I try too hard. My life experiences began with a supportive family that believed in learning, an inventor grandfather who wrote poetry and invented telephones. I have been able to go to places in the world and have interesting people in my life. All have contributed to my art, my creativity, my spirit.

When the writing flows, I'm connected to spirit. Though my life and my writing have been chaotic, there's an order to them that centers around what I "came here to do." Everything supports a central theme.

Malcolm