Art and Spirit MFA Thesis

Where art and spirit meet
Art that creates a bridge to the soul.

1

gwen penner
Transart Institute
Donau University, Krems Austria
2008
Where art and intellect meet
How my art and research connect
This year I had two goals for my art praxis: one, to learn to create art in an intuitive way rather than
intellectualizing and planning each step ahead of time, and second to create art that would hold meaning
beyond nice design. To quote Kandinsky. I wanted to make art out of my spiritual being, and communicate
that to the viewer.
Studying the great spiritual artists such as, Kandinsky, Rothko, Agnes Martin, Hilma af Klint and Alex Grey gave
me insight into their processes and minds and helped me understand my role as an artist much more deeply.
I learned by not only reading their words, but also by contemplating their work. Reading about Hinduism,
Buddhism and Taoism in relation to art gave my art a much fuller life. Understanding how the art I create is
similar to a Zen enso (circle painting) makes me part of a larger world.
Kandinskys book Concerning the Spiritual in Art also helped me see how my art can exist in both the spiritual
world and the world of form and color at the same time. I also read several books on engaging the sacred
in your art that included examples of daily practices and art making inspirations that other artists fnd
rewarding. These books were especially helpful given the context in which I was placing my research, which
was creating a course in art and spirituality. So while the research was very rewarding for me, I am also glad
that it is now in a format that can easily translate into a sharing/teaching situation.
In summary, I believe the research has created a larger context in which I can now view my praxis and has
given me a deeper sense of what it means to create art that is of the spirit. And to live a life that affrms
creating art that is a bridge to the soul.
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Introduction to Thesis
1

What you will fnd in this thesis is a ten week course I have created on art and spirituality.
The goal of creating this course is two fold:
to give me a format for exploring spirituality in my own art,
to pass this awareness on to students.
This course is designed to familiarizing students with artists that create art from a deeper source and to
begin the journey of creating meaningful content in their praxis as well as using their art to nurture inner
growth and purpose. The artists we look at will have a reputation for the spiritual context and content of
their work and an audience that affrms that content. My experience is that higher education is good at
teaching students about color theory, design principles, techniques, etc, and then we shoo them out the door.
We forget to teach students how to create meaningful imagery that will help them sustain an art praxis.
Course lectures and activities are based on two classes per week for 10 weeks plus 6 hours of homework
per week.
Notes

1. Alex Grey, The Mission of Art (Shambala, Boston, 2001), 115.
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Syllabus and class schedule
1

This course is designed to familiarizing students with artists that create art from a deeper source and to
begin the journey of creating meaningful content in their praxis as well as using their art to nurture inner
growth and purpose. The artists we look at will have a reputation for the spiritual context and content of
their work and an audience that affrms that content. My experience is that higher education is good at
teaching students about color theory, design principles, techniques, etc, and then we shoo them out the door.
We forget to teach students how to create meaningful imagery that will help them sustain an art praxis.
Course lectures and activities are based on two classes per week for 10 weeks plus 6 hours of homework
per week.
Week 1-2: Historical context
Day 1: Intro to course
Day 2: Personal and historical context
Day 3: Historical context: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism
Day 4: Chinese professor gives workshop on calligraphy and brush painting.
Week 3-6: Artists that connect spirit and image in their work
Gwen will present four artists: Agnes Martin, Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky and Mark Rothko
Students will research and give presentations to class on other artists.
Day 5: 18th and 19th centuries of Western Thought
Day 6: Hilma af Klint
Day 7: Agnes Martin video and poetry discussion
Day 8: Wassily Kandinsky and Mark Rothko
Day 9, 10, 11, 12: Student presentations. (15-20 minutes presentations; class size 12; 4 per day)

Week 7-8: Art as a spiritual practice: fnding your voice.
Day 13: Small group discussions of journal questions and talk about Alex Grey ideas
Day 14: Deborah Haynes ideas and Carl Jung and dreams
Day 15: Yoga class and meditation at Spacious Heart Studio
Day 16: Pema Chodron/Buddhist meditation practices and art and short Ti Chi Session
Week 9-10: Studio time, refection time
Text: VoidIn Art, by Mark Levy
with excerpts and ideas from
Beyond Belief: Modern art and the religious imagination
The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985
Art Lessons: Meditations on the creative life, Deborah J Haynes
Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art: Contemporary cross-cultural perspectives, Ed. Dawn Perlmutter
On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, by James Elkins
The Mission of Art, Alex Grey
Notes

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Week 1: Setting a personal and historical context
Day One: Personal context
Introductions: course and students
Short discussion
Lecture: Why a course on where art and spirit meet
Reading assignments

Class introductions, syllabus, text, introduce material for semester, link to readings,
course participation expectations, climate of acceptance.
Discussion about student expectations for class.
When they read the course title, what comes to their mind?
What do they want out of a class with this description and title?

Lecture: Why a course entitled Where art and spirit meet?
For years as I was creating art, I would feel like I was just making designs and they did not portray any real
meaning or depth. I would come up with images and color schemes I liked and create them in fber, but when
I was fnished with them and stand back, they would feel hollow.
While I do not think ALL art needs to be based on profound meaning and I am a huge fan of humor in art,
I wanted something more and was unaware of how to get at what I wanted. I began exploring, in an almost
unconscious way, art that seemed to have a soul or spiritual quality, that would be aesthetically sophisticated
and intriguing on many levels. What was this quality these works embodied that was so diffcult to convey in
words? While viewing them, one could lose track of time and space and be absorbed into the work almost
like a mediation. I became intrigued with the work of Paul Klee, his very deep understanding of design, his
combination of visual art and music. His ability to show emotions from sorrow to joy.
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Show Sunset
1
painting and example from Pedagogical Sketchbook.
2

During this time I had two miscarriages and I began to wonder about how to visually represent the emotion
of those experiences in my art. I ended up creating a work that I really did not like, it seemed too dark and
disjointed, too much like the experiences? Too geometric and linear for a very non linear experience. I also
felt like it did not work compositionally or just was not a good work of art.
Show Blood Paths, 1987
So I began to debate whether I could mix art and spiritual or soul needs or even art and ideas that matter.
In my art classes I had never been given a context for creating work other than from assignments or formal
principles or even a clue about how to think about ideas and begin to create from thoughts and experiences
that others could also relate to. In my teaching I frequently fnd that when students are given open ended
assignments, like the typical, Do what ever you want, they frequently do their worst workreverting back
to more childish imagery or ways of drawing. Their concept may be deeper than the typical assignment, but
the execution is below what they can really do.
Ask class, Why is this? Can you relate to this?
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When I applied for the MFA program at Transart Institute/Donau University, I was thinking of following a line
of research I had begun some years before. The research documented how people related letter forms to
color, something akin to synaesthesia, where a person may relate something they hear to a color, or a sound
to a smell. But in the back of my mind this felt like a cop out. I could do this on my own, and I really wanted
to use this time at Transart, where I could have input from people from around the world, to explore new
areas. What could I do during these years that would give my praxis the depth that I wanted as an artist?
What art was exciting to me and why? What did these artists that created art that excited me have that
I didnt? I decided I would be open to exploring other ideas in my MFA and was trying to fgure out even
how to go about this when I got a call from my son in Washington, DC. He had been at an art museum that
afternoon and wanted to tell me about a painting. He couldnt even remember the artist. But he was still
aware of a feeling he had while looking at the work that he wanted to talk about. The minute he started
describing the work, I knew he was talking about a Mark Rothko painting. Now, this sounds very clich, but
when it is your own kid you listen. Some how this connected to my desire to stop creating work that felt
hollow and started me on a path to look at and study artists that created their ouevre out of what they
would defne as a spiritual context. And I began again to defne how a spiritual context could begin to shape
my work.
In On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art,

James Elkins, art history professor at the School of the
Art Institute in Chicago and Head of Art at University College in Cork, Ireland, writes about the experiences
of fve students that create art with a spiritual or religious connection and how the art they create in this
context is such bad art compared to the work they do for course work. Typically in this institution, the
student work that would incorporate a religious theme would not be shown in class, but would rather be
created on the side.
3
In the preface Elkins states It [referring to the idea that there is no religious modern art in museums] is a
state of affairs that is at once obvious and odd, known to everyone and yet hardly whispered about. I cant
think of a subject that is harder to get right, more challenging to speak about in a way that will be acceptable
to the many viewpoints people bring to bear.
4
In the concluding chapter, Elkins states, I have tried to show why committed, engaged ambitious informed
art does not mix with dedicated, serious thoughtful, heartfelt religion. Whenever the two meet, one wrecks
the other.
5
However in the last paragraph he also suggests that just because we have not found a way to mix
addressing religion in art, it is irresponsible not to keep trying.
6
And I have to ask again, Why is it that it is
so diffcult to mesh art with spirituality or ideas that are meaningful?
An important element in this book is the clarifcation of the difference between religion and spirituality.
7

Many of the readings in this course will confuse these two and when you read religion it will be talking about
spirituality, but I think the context will make it obvious which they are talking about. However, as I will note
later, even Elkins blurs his own defnition. It will be interesting as you work on your own art to see how
these defnitions mingle or become more separate for you.
How do you defne spiritual and religious? Short class discussion.
The defnition of religion that Elkins works from in this book is a named, noncultic major system of
belief. ... Religion also means the trappings of such systems: the rituals, liturgies, catechisms, calendars holy
days.... and sacred texts.
8
Spirituality is any system of belief that is private, subjective, largely or wholly
incommunicable, often wordless and sometimes even unrecognized. Spirituality ... can be part of a religion,
but not its whole.
9
A person can be spiritual, but not religious.
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Elkins also defnes fve areas of religious art, several of them I think encompass spiritual art.
1. Conventional religious art.
10
Example: Warner Sallman, Head of Christ
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2. Art that is critical of religion.
12
This is the art that gets the most attention right now.
Example: Serrano, Piss Christ
13
3. Art that sets out to create a new faith.
14
Examples of Visionary art: Alex Grey, Nature of Mind Panel 6
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; Klee, Ancient Sound
16
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4. Art that burns away that which is false in religion.
17
Example: Arthur Boyd, Crucifxion, Shoalhaven
18
5. Art that creates a new faith, but unconsciously.
19
Example: James Hampton, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium
General Assembly, foil folk art
20
Ask students to talk to person next to them about artists they could see ftting into the above categories.
Then share these with the class.
Elkins conclusions that art and religion (he merges spirituality in his last three categories) should remain
separate, take a very narrow look at art and religion and art and spirituality. Instead I would advocate for
working with people to help them discover how they can create art that is about their deepest feelings
about religion and spirituality in a manner that communicates those feelings in a mature way that moves
beyond the cliche. I think it is unfortunate that he only explores the art of students and not mature artists
that have learned how to communicate their beliefs.
21
Some how when I think of the students he is talking about, especially Kim, I am reminded of many students
who say they cannot draw. But when you teach them different ways of looking at objects that help them
move past what their mind thinks it looks like, they suddenly learn to see what the object looks like and
can wipe out the image in their minds eye and draw what actually exists.
Discuss if time: Where do art and religion/spirituality intersect in their lives?
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Assignments: Read and respond to questions
Readings for Day 2
VoidIn Art, pp 1-5 (Introduction)
On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, pp 4-20 (A very brief history of
religion and art)
The Subjugation of the Spiritual in Art, in Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art. pp 1-18. Essay by
Dawn Permutter
Refect on the following questions in your journal entry to prepare for the class discussion.
1. How does Levy defne Void?
2. How does Elkins defnition for spirituality/religion differ from Levys?
3. What is the difference between how Permutter retells the history of art and religion and
how Elkins retells it? What can they learn from each other?
4. Does Permutters idea of spirituality ft with either Levys or Elkins defnitions or does she
have her own?
5. What new ideas or concepts have these readings introduced to you?
Day 2: History and Context
Any comments from previous class?
Discussion of readings and questions
Video clips of Andy Goldsworthy and Karen Finley
Assignments for Day 3
1. How does Levy defne Void?
It can be a diffcult concept for us because of the reason he states that Western thought flls up space with
human images, where as Eastern thought is comfortable with empty space. If god is formless it permeates
everything. By the end of the introduction, I think we can see that Void could ft our defnition of spiritual.
He states, The idea of the Void of God as a formless feld that at once is the source of all creation and
is inextricably linked to all forms of creation...
22
Levys idea of a tranquil lake as the Void, and then if you
think of the ripples in the lake as something different that is still made of the same material, is helpful to
understand Void.
23
Later on he talks of the Void as the empty space in a pitcher, that empty space is really the
essence of the pitcher. Without the emptiness it would be useless.
24
2. How does Elkins defnition for spirituality/religion differ from Levys?
Levy has a very open and expansive defnition of art that encompasses the void or spirit.
Elkins has a very patriarchal, black and white defnition; that art has to depict a Biblical story in a
sophisticated painterly way in order for it to be good religious art. Look at Carivaggio paintings, Conversion
of St. Paul on page 73 and The Calling of St. Matthew on page 74.
3. What is the difference between how Permutter retells the history of art and religion and how Elkins
retells it? What can they learn from each other?
Permutter tells the history of art from a wider perspective of religion and spirituality and with an agenda to
explain how artistic spirituality has threatened the religious norms and has therefore been subjugated. Her
explanations come from more of a sociological viewpoint and from the oppressed rather than the oppressor.
Elkins on the other hand could be considered by Permutter as a subjugator as he ignores the spiritual
qualities and potential of post modern art. His telling of the history of art is in the context of dispelling the
credibility of spirituality in art where as Permutters is to affrm it. Elkins last statement is ...because art
that sets out to convey spiritual values goes against the grain of the history of modernism.
25
I am amazed
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that he did not even mention Kandinsky who wrote at length on his paintings and their spiritual content.
4. Does Permutters idea of spirituality ft with either Levys or Elkins defnitions or does
she have her own?
Her approach is more from a feminist stance and her defnition of art is broader including performance,
environmental, etc. What do you think of her statement that critics and historians are in denial and that
there are unconventional forms of the sacred in modern art?
26
Do you think Elkins is in denial? Do you
agree that controlling image-making is a way to control people? Is removing NEA money from artists the
same as taking away their graven images so they will have to conform? If art was not so powerful why
would they care?
5. Permutter talks at length about ritual art. What place do you see for environmental and performance
art in the context of spirituality?
Show clip of Andy Goldsworthy making art in Rivers and Tides documentary and Karen Finley performance.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czUxRu193vY)
15 minunte viewing of section of Andy Goldsworthy Rivers and Tides
Discuss differences in Goldsworthys and Finleys art especially in the mood and feeling created.
Are there any similarities in their messages?
What new ideas or concepts have these readings introduced to you?
Assignments for Day 3
Artist presentation assignment handout
Journal entry for Day 3
Write a short journal entry refecting on your answer to:
Why did you sign up for this class?
Now that you have a bit more of an idea what it will be about, what do you hope to achieve?
Reading: VoidIn Art, p 7-63.
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Week 5-6: Student asssignment for presentation of artists
Days 9-12
Presentation Assignment
Please select one of the following artists OR if you have another one you would like to research that is fne,
BUT you must clear it with me frst, and prepare a 15-20 minute presentation. (I realize the list is particularly
lacking in the music and poetry category and it these are you interests, I am very happy to have you fnd
artists in these felds.)
Your presentation needs to include the following:
biographical information of artist
artists thoughts on the link between their work and spirituality
evidence from others as to the reputation of this artist as having a spiritual context
your thoughts about how the work of this artists connects to your spirit
a good sampling of this persons work using Powerpoint or other image display software
a fve minute discussion or class exercise based on your learning about the artist
the day of your presentation please hand me an outline and bibliography (of at least 5 sources)

Robert Irwin
Douglas Wheeler
Anish Kapoor
Montien Boonma
Kazimir Malevich
Joseph Beuys
Barnett Newman
William Blake
Ernst Fuchs
Ad Reinhardt
Andy Goldsworthy
Yves Klein
Sam Francis
Vincent VanGogh
Emma Kunz,
Meinrad Craighead
Georgia Okeefe
Sonya Delauney
Frieda Kahlo
Magdalena Abokonowics
Louise Nevelson
Hildegard of Bingen
Joseph M.W. Turner
Alberto Giacometti
Samuel Beckett
Paul Klee
Piet Mondrian
Mark Tobey
James Turrell
Music:
Philip Glass
John Cage
Nam June Paik
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Notes

1. http://www.luc.edu/depts/history/dennis/Visual_Arts/16-Surrealism_Klee_Sunset-(1930)-
%5BAIC%5D.jpg
2. Paul Klee, Pedagogical Sketchbook (London: Faber and Faber, 1953), 54-55.
3. James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art (New York, Routledge, 2004), 1-4.
4. Elkins, xi.
5. Elkins, 115.
6. Elkins, 116.
7. Elkins, 1-4.
8. Elkins, 1.
9. Elkins, 1.
10. Elkins, 37.
11. http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/owlive/img/feb04/passion.head0222_big.jpg
12. Elkins, 37.
13. http://www.thecityreview.com/s00conc2.jpg
14. Elkins, 37.
15. Alex Grey,. Transfgurations (Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont, 2001), 119.
16. http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/labs/sabatti/Pictures/array.jpg
17. Elkins, 37.
18. Rosemary Crumlin, Beyond Belief: Modern art and the religious imagination (National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne, 1998), 140.
19. Elkins, 37.
20. http://farm2.static.fickr.com/1021/1426063190_ef9cff3d26.jpg?v=0
21. Elkins, 115-116.
22. Mark Levy, Void in Art (Bramble Books, Norfolk. Connecticut, 2006), 1.
23. Levy, 1.
24. Levy, 34.
25. Elkins, 20.
26. Dawn Permutter, The Subjugation of the Spiritual in Art, in Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art. (State
University of New York Press, Albany, New York, 1999), 7.

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Week 2: Historical context
Reading assignments to be completed for today
Journal entry for Day 3
Write a short journal entry refecting on your answer to:
Why did you sign up for this class?
Now that you have a bit more of an idea what it will be about, what do you hope to achieve?
Reading: VoidIn Art, p 7-63
Day 3: History and context
Review of Eastern religions as related to art
Reading assignments for day 5 (Day 4 is Chinese calligraphy workshop)
Artist presentation assignment handout
Review of Eastern religions as related to art
When abstract art was in its infancy several artists, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee in particular began to
write about their art from a spiritual perspective. Kandinsky was aware that Asiatic disciplines of meditation
might provide a method through which artists could discover the invisible universe of spiritual energies.
1
For
Kandinsky meditation or absorption became a means to realizing artistic ends. In Kandinskys notebooks
several pages exist that have notes for meditation instructions.
2
Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian and other
abstract pioneers were involved in the Theosophy Society mentioned earlier which used the Indian religions
as a source of inspiration.
3
In VoidIn Art, Levy goes into great detail describing the Eastern philosophies and their contribution to art. I
would even say that at times it seems like the descriptions especially of Hinduism are more for his interest in
meditation than for the beneft of helping the reader understand the spiritual contribution to art. I do agree
however that giving the reader a background in the source of the spiritual practices that inspire the creative
impulse is a good idea.
Does any one in this class practice or have a family member that practice any of the religions is these
readings Hinduism, Buddhism or Taoism? Does Levy accurately present these practices in your opinion?
Hinduism
Void is also envisioned as the cosmic egg that held the seed of creation. The void called Brahman can be
reached through the spiritual practice of meditation and is thought of as an energy feld or consciousness
that goes beyond awareness and physical emotional and mental bodies have dissolve into formlessness.
4
I am glad Levy asks the question on page nine, How can there be a representation of Brahman in art if
Brahman is a formless void with no physical attributes?
5
I was beginning to ask the same thing at the point.
The frst artworks representing the Void were similar to the Western images in that they were creating the
Void with human characteristics. In this case man/woman/and androgynous show how duality can exist in an
absolute. This image is also referred to as the Shiva Trinity. On one side of the Shiva is a female, Uma, with a
sweet and sensuous expression. On the other side is a male, Bhairava, with an angry countenance. The
central face of Shiva Mahevara appears to be deep in meditation with a blissful smile and a rather iconic
face signifying the Void, omniscient and omnipotent, containing all and everything.
6
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This is the equivalent of the Taoist Yin/Yang. In the Yin/Yang the white and black signify male female and the
circle the absolute.
7
Show images of Shiva and Yin/Yang
In my opinion Levy goes into a great deal of technical aspects of Hindi/yogi meditation and spirituality but
does not relate it to Hindu art work in specifc.
Buddhism
When talking about Buddhism there is considerably more specifc reference to art.
One of the fundamentals of Zen Buddhism is the refusal of participants to worship images. According to
Levy, this has created a context that was conducive to the embodiment of the Void in images.
8
Many of the
Zen (or Chan as it is called in China) landscape paintings use subjects such as houses, fgures or mountains
of varying defnition. They gradually emerge from or dissolve into the empty space that consumes most of
the paper. In these works the scene becomes the path through which we meet the Void.
In many ways Zen Buddhists and Hindu philosophers agree with contemporary physicists that matter is
a quantum soup, a vibrating feld of varying densities in constant fux.
9
The connection with the smallest
void is a connection with the universe. When speaking of a Zen garden Levy says the cones of gravel in the
garden seem to dissolve into the pure energy of the Great Void. ... The very dilution of form by space, which
occurs in meditation and through observation of such works as this garden, lightens the pressure created by
the apparent solidity of the world. Space is a great mental balm.
10
Enso which are one-stroke, ink circles drawn by Zen masters are another expression of the Void. The empty
circle symbolizes the spiritual world and the circle without beginning and end alludes to the infnite empty
space of the Void.
11
In 1995, Tanahashi, a Japanese American artist, created an enso with a brush six feet tall
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. For him, the circle also symbolized
social unifcation and solidarity.
12
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When we talk about Agnes Martin at a later date you will see some similarities in how she prepares for her
work and waits for inspiration. Levy quotes Tanahashi, We can be most creative when we have nothing in
hand, nothing in mind
13
which are almost the exact words you will hear Agnes Martin say in the flm, With
my Back to the World.
Taoism
The Tao again relates to the physicists idea that matter is a quantum soup, a vibrating feld of varying
densities in constant fux.
14
In other words, an energy feld that fows through all things. The Yin/Yang is
the best known Tao symbol representing male and female and unity, or in Levys words, polarities of the
existential world.
14
The traditional Tao artist will strive to connect his or her own chi (breath, vapor or
energy) through the brush to the viewer. For the Tao artist the idea [of emptiness] must precede the brush
and it must extend [to emptiness] once the stroke has ended leading the viewer into the empty space or
Void. Bamboo is a typical subject for Tao paintings since it has a hallow core and signifes the presence of the
Void in all things.
15
These descriptions at frst may seem esoteric and unrelated, but as we study the art of the early abstract
impressionists there will be many links.
Closing discussion questions for class discussion
What are the similarities between these religions or practices?
What are the differences?
What are the similarities between these religions and Christianity?
And again what are the differences?
How does the culture you are raised in infuence your art?
Day 4
Chinese professor gives lesson on calligraphy and brushwork.
Readings for day 5
Void In Art:, Ch. 4, 5, p 65-104.
Beyond Belief: Modern art and the religious imagination essay entitled, Beyond Belief: The
Artistic Journey, p 21-24.

Refect on the following questions in your journal entry to prepare for the class discussion.
1. What do you think of the theory that Levy offers about why the Western and Eastern
attitudes toward the Void are different? Do you have other thoughts to suggest why
the differences exist?
2. How do all the rules and regulations about Christianity ft with this?
3. What do you think aspects of nature could be symbolizing in these images?
The vast sky? What is the mood created by the man with his back turned to the viewer in
the Friedrich painting on page 83?
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Notes

1. Roger Lipsey, An art of our Own: The Spiritual in 20th Century Art (Shambhala Publications, Boston,
MA.1988), 1.
2. Maurice Tuchman, Ed., The spiritual in art: Abstract painting, 1890-1985)Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, Abbeville Press, New York. 1986), 133.
3. Tuchman, 134.
4. Mark Levy, Void in Art (Bramble Books, Norfolk. Connecticut, 2006), 1.
5. Levy, 9.
6. Levy, 9.
7. Levy, 27.
8. Levy, 27.
9. Levy, 28.
10. Levy, 37.
11. Levy, 38.
12. Levy, 41.
13. Levy, 41.
14. Levy, 52.
15. Levy, 52.
Week 3: Western Thought
Day 5: History continued
Short discussion
Lecture: Why a course on where art and spirit meet
Reading assignments for Day 6
Readings to be completed for day 5
Void In Art: Ch. 4, 5 (p 65-104)
Beyond Belief: Modern art and the religious imagination, essay entitled, Beyond Belief: The
Artistic Journey, p 21-24
Journal entries for class discussion
1. What do you think of the theory that Levy offers about why the Western and Eastern
attitudes toward the Void are different? Do you have other thoughts to suggest why
the differences exist?
3. What do you think aspects of nature could be symbolizing in these images?
The vast sky? What is the mood created by the man with his back turned to the viewer in
the Friedrich painting on page 83?
History lecture and discussion
In Chapter Four Levy offers a theory of why Western attitudes to the Void differ from Eastern. He claims the
concept of a God as a Void or nothingness was too similar to the harsh nothingness of the desert to appeal
to the people. Their concept of a God needed to be a source or entity that stood outside of creation and
was in opposition to the Void. This God gradually came to take on a human form. The early philosophers
Parmenides, Plato did think of God as Void, but more of a divine artisan that fashioned the universe and
created the four elements of earth, fre water and air.
1
Christianity and Judaism provide a single idea of God, a father, in place of the Void and this God wills
existence into being out of nothing. Jesus Christ became the intermediary to bring people to the divine
source.
2
1. What do you think of this theory that Levy offers about why the Western and Eastern
attitudes toward the Void are different? Do you have other thoughts to suggest why the
differences exist?
A visual example of the early Christians fear of the Void is Giottos (1266-1337) painting of Expulsion of
Joachim from the Temple.
3
Juxtapose this with Ma Yuans Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring.
4
In Giottos
painting the Void is dark empty space where one is exiled if rules of the church/society are broken; in Yuans
image the path to the Void is a peaceful place with fowers and birds along the way.
5
Penner 14
In chapter four, Levy discusses a variety of paintings based on Biblical and traditional stories that explore
interpretations of the Void. In da Vincis, (1452-1519) St John the Baptist,
6
the charming boyish fgure fades
into the darkness or Void. John the Baptist is also pointing into a deeper Void and smiling. Very different from
the reaction of Jaochim. In Stigmatization of St. Catherine of Siena
7
Beccafumi (1484-1551) has Catherine,
the central fgure, pointing into a deep light space in the center of the painting. As this is the dominate
image in the painting, or focal point, it could be assumed to have signifcance. Some 50 years later, Caravaggio
(1573-1610) again surrounds his fgures in the power of darkness. Levys interpretation of this is that it is a
restful silence compared to the violent action that takes place in the rest of the painting.
8
The paintings of Zurbaran (1598-1664) a contemporary of Caravaggio, begin to move in a similar direction
as work that is created out of a more Eastern philosophy. It is assumed that Zurbaran was infuenced by
the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross whose writings come close to describing the pure energy, bliss or
consciousness beyond the normal that is described in Hindu and Buddhist teachings. In many of Zurbarans
paintings the background is a large space or wall without any decorative elements, people are calm or in a
meditative or dream state.
And then in the 17th and 18th centuries there was the Enlightenment, rational thought and valid scientifc
experience prevailed. There was little room for uncertainty, doubt or Void; progress was on peoples minds. To
give a few examples of things that were going on in Western Civilization: this was the period of Galileo, Isaac
Newton, the Americas were being explored in earnest, Hudsons Bay Company was founded in Canada, the
speed of light was frst measured, Mozart and Vivaldi were composing, the spinning jenny was invented and
George Washington was the frst president of the United States.
In the 19th Century, thanks to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the new thinking became centered around
Feeling is All. All the was false and artifcial was to be banished as the enemy of honest emotion.
9
The
new era of romanticism was based on feeling and imagination. One of the key philosophies of the Romantic
eranaturphilosophie was founded byFriedrich Schelling.
10
In his belief, God was an infnite Being beyond
form, but nevertheless was present in nature and the representation of nature in art.

Show Friedrichs Monk by the Sea
11
and Wanderer Overlooking the Fog.
12
3. What do you think aspects of nature could be symbolizing in these images? The vast sky?
What is the mood created by the man with his back turned to the viewer?
Penner 15
In Monk by the Sea, Levy suggests that Friedrich is depicting the idea that the artist is now the authentic holy
manthe intermediary between the spiritual reality and the audience because priests and preachers have
lost their authority.
13
The artist as holy man is an important idea that captures audiences through the 19th
and 20th centuries and is explored in depth in another of Levys books Technicians of Ecstacy: Shamanism and
the modern artist.
Take a few minutes to form groups of 3 or 4 with people around you and explore this idea of
the artists as a spiritual leader in society. If you think of the arts: music, flm, theater, visual art,
literature, poetry. What artists come to mind that fll this role in society today or in the
last 50 years?
Reading assignment for Day 6
Beyond Belief: Modern art and the religious imagination, essay entitled, Beyond belief and the
power of the Image: David Freedberg talks with Rosemary Crumlin, p 12-15.
Please journal on the following questions and come to class prepared to discuss them.
1. Why do you think religion and art became so separated in the 20th Century?
2. Do you think we still live in an age of the religious image? How often in your day are you
confronted with religious symbolism that is now used as a metaphor?
3. Is your frst connection with a work of art aesthetic or emotional?
4. Choose an image from that catalogue section of Beyond Belief. Answer Freedberg question
with regards to this image. How are you engaged by this work? How is your religious
imagination sparked by the subject matter and by the formal qualities, ie use of brush
stroke, balance, geometry etc?
5. Does understanding how you may engage with an image on a spiritual level give you any
insight into how you engage with other images, for example in movies or in advertising?
6. Levy suggests the in Wanderer overlooking the Fog, Friedrich is implying that the artist needs to
have a journeyan internal journey to reach the Void and that this is a diffcult but necessary
part of the artistic and spiritual process.
14
As you look at your life, where have you journeyed (internally and externally) that has become
a part of or beneftted your spiritual and artist creativity?
Day 6: Artists and Spirit, Hilma af Klint
Discussion time for required reading and journal entries. See assignment above.
Hilma of Klint lecture
Handout and explanation of presentation assignment
Hilma af Klint. Swedish, 1862-1944
I frst became aware Hilma af Klint work when I picked up a book because I saw the image you see on
the cover. I was so fascinated, I bought that book rather than the one that was on the topic I needed, just
because I loved that painting. It is Group X, Altar paintings #1 1915.
15
Penner 16

The body of af Klints work that we know today was completely unknown in her life time because she
decided before her death that the world was not ready for her art. Toward the end of her life she attempted
to have a museum built to house her work and asked a friend to be the curator. We dont know exactly why,
but neither of these things happened and so she asked that her work not be exhibited until 20 years after
her death. Her offcial debut was 42 years after her death when a selection of her paintings were included in
the exhibition in Los Angeles called The Spiritual in Art: Abstract painting 1890-1985.
16
Af Klint was trained at the art school in Stockholm and then set up her studio in Stockholm where she made
her living by painting and selling landscapes and portraits and still-lifes. During school she became involved
in spiritualist activities and in 1887 formed a seance group of women known as The Five. The fve women,
af Klint being the primary medium, would take notes and make automatic drawings during their seance
sessions.
17
There are not names or details for these drawings. They just are what they are.

In 1906 af Klint began to make paintings based on these drawings and her emerging spiritual convictions. It
seems that af Klint fnally found the subject matter for her art.
At this time af Klint also became involved in Theosophy. I am going to go into some detail in describing this
spiritual philosophy because it was infuential for many of the early abstract artists, in particular, Wassily
Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian. Theosophy was founded by Helen Blavatsky, who was born in Russia
and immigrated to New York in 1873 where she founded the Theosophy Society which is also credited with
some of the beginnings of New Age thinking.
18
Scott Finckler, architect in Miami describes theosophy and its relationships to religion, art and science.
Theosophy is based on the pursuit of truth as a goal. This differs from other religious attitudes were truth is
imposed through authority. In theosophy truth is sought by the study of comparative religions in an attempt
Penner 17
to fnd certain doctrines common to all faiths, offering a combination of eastern philosophical attitudes with
a western Christian morality. The emphasis of theosophy is an existence of a deeper spiritual reality beyond
the material world of nature. In further understanding this true nature found within ourselves we can better
evaluate, and interpret our lives and experiences. This idea contradicts sciences concern with the physical
world. Science pursues laws of the relationships of physical objects, while theosophy pursues truths found
within the intangible spirit. Both science and theosophy are attempting to unlock and discover answers of
human existence, but through the study of different aspects of the human experience. In both cases the
conclusion is unknown and probably never will be found. The importance is that with every step or discovery
we get a better understanding of who we are and how we relate to our surroundings on a physical and
emotional level.
Its inner orientation, optimistic world view, and lack of necessity for one to disavow previous religious views
aided in its popularity throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More important than its popularity
was its extreme infuence on the arts in general. In the early 20th century it was a catalyst for new theories
towards abstraction in painting and architecture.
The idealistic and antimaterialistic attitude found within theosophy is what attracted many artists of the time
to it. Artists embraced the freedom to interpret and integrate their own experiences. The goal of theosophy
wasnt to establish an independent religious body, therefore there was no specifc dogma as with other
religions.
19
What af Klint found in Theosophy was the idea of taking beliefs from all religious sources that brought her
towards transcendence being above the material world. He belief system was very complex, involving
mediums and spirit guides, but her work presented one main idea, that of duality in which there were two
realms, a visible one and an invisible one. The invisible world she represented was the realm of truth and the
visible one was often depicted in the natural elements such as swans that were a part of the nature she loved
and studied.
20
Formal elements and colors in her paintings can be related to this duality. She believed that the sexes of men
and women in the real world are reversed in the astral world; and that this reversal provides a resolution of
the duality within human existence. It was her belief that this struggle with duality was the fundamental idea
behind all creative power. In her swan series the observer is led to believe that when balance is attained one
can leave the physical plane and join the angels.
21
Group IV. No 1, Swan
22
No 3a, Buddhas Series Vii, No 5
24
Standpoint in the Earthly Life
23

It seems that af Klint was not infuenced or even aware of European abstractionist painters. It was not until
1896 that she became aware of Edvard Munch from Norway when he had an exhibition in the building that
to fnd certain doctrines common to all faiths, offering a combination of eastern philosophical attitudes with
a western Christian morality. The emphasis of theosophy is an existence of a deeper spiritual reality beyond
the material world of nature. In further understanding this true nature found within ourselves we can better
evaluate, and interpret our lives and experiences. This idea contradicts sciences concern with the physical
world. Science pursues laws of the relationships of physical objects, while theosophy pursues truths found
within the intangible spirit. Both science and theosophy are attempting to unlock and discover answers of
human existence, but through the study of different aspects of the human experience. In both cases the
conclusion is unknown and probably never will be found. The importance is that with every step or discovery
we get a better understanding of who we are and how we relate to our surroundings on a physical and
emotional level.
Its inner orientation, optimistic world view, and lack of necessity for one to disavow previous religious views
aided in its popularity throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More important than its popularity
was its extreme infuence on the arts in general. In the early 20th century it was a catalyst for new theories
towards abstraction in painting and architecture.
The idealistic and antimaterialistic attitude found within theosophy is what attracted many artists of the time
to it. Artists embraced the freedom to interpret and integrate their own experiences. The goal of theosophy
wasnt to establish an independent religious body, therefore there was no specifc dogma as with other
religions.
19
What af Klint found in Theosophy was the idea of taking beliefs from all religious sources that brought her
towards transcendence being above the material world. He belief system was very complex, involving
mediums and spirit guides, but her work presented one main idea, that of duality in which there were two
realms, a visible one and an invisible one. The invisible world she represented was the realm of truth and the
visible one was often depicted in the natural elements such as swans that were a part of the nature she loved
and studied.
20
Formal elements and colors in her paintings can be related to this duality. She believed that the sexes of men
and women in the real world are reversed in the astral world; and that this reversal provides a resolution of
the duality within human existence. It was her belief that this struggle with duality was the fundamental idea
behind all creative power. In her swan series the observer is led to believe that when balance is attained one
can leave the physical plane and join the angels.
21
Group IV. No 1, Swan
22
No 3a, Buddhas Series Vii, No 5
24
Standpoint in the Earthly Life
23

It seems that af Klint was not infuenced or even aware of European abstractionist painters. It was not until
1896 that she became aware of Edvard Munch from Norway when he had an exhibition in the building that
Penner 18
housed her studio and under the same circumstance became familiar with Kandinskys work in 1914, when
her oeuvre was already fully developed. Like the abstract painters Hilma af Klint developed a system of
symbols and colors that represented her ideas and beliefs: red and gold suggested the masculine, where as
silver and blues represented the feminine. The triangle or pyramid shapes in her work were to symbolize the
development of the human spirit.
25
At her death in 1944, af KIint left her nephew Erik af Klint her entire inheritance of some 1000 paintings,
often referred to as the Occult Paintings26, stipulating they not be exhibited for 20 years when she felt
the world be open to their message.
Reading and responding to Agnes Martin for Day 7
Choose two of the six poems or writings provided online and write about your
interpretation of them in your journal.
Penner 19
Notes

1. Mark Levy, The Void in Art (Bramble Books, Norfolk. Connecticut, 2006), 65-81.
2. Levy, 67.
3. Levy, 69.
4. Levy, 61.
5. Levy, 68-70.
6. Levy, 71.
7. Levy, 72.
8. Levy, 76.
9. Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J, Mamiya, Gardeners, Art through the Ages, Volume 2, Eleventh Edition
(Wadsworth, 2001), 863.
10. Levy, 83.
11. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/f/friedric/1/105fried.html
12. http://www.onlinekunst.de/museum/cdf_der_wanderer_ueber_dem_nebelmeer.jpg
13. Levy, 85.
14. Levy, 89-90.
15. Rosemary Crumlin, Beyond Belief: Modern art and the religious imagination (National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne, 1998), 57.
16. Maurice Tuchman, The spiritual in art: Abstract painting 1890-1985 (Los Angeles County Museum of
Art, Abbeville Press, New York,1986), 161.
17. Catherine de Zegher, , Hendel Teicher, 3 X Abstraction: New methods of drawing, Hilma af Klint, Emma
Kuntz, Agnes Martin (Yale University Press, 2005), 98.
18. Tuchman, 64
19. Scott Finckler, Contemporary Architecture derived from Theosophy, December 12, 1998.
http://www.scottf.com/plus/written/theosophy.htm
20. de Zegher, 98.
21. Tuchman, 161.
22. de Zegher, 100 .
23. de Zegher, Illustration #48.

24. de Zegher, 62.
25. de Zegher, 96.

26. Tuchman, 161.
Penner 20
Week 4: Artists and Spirit, Agnes Martin, Kandinsky and Rothko
Day 7: Agnes Martin
Discuss Poems
Watch video and respond
Readings for Day 8
Show Cow painting (She does have a sense of humour!)
Choose 6 people to read the poem or writing and their response.
Agnes Martin. 1912-2004
AGNES MARTIN: WITH MY BACK TO THE WORLD
The documentary is an interview style with Mary Lance as the interviewer and producer. Most of the time
Agnes is painting while she talks. Occasionally you hear Mary Lance ask a question.
Agnes Martin was designated by ARTnews Magazine as one of the worlds top-ten living artists. This
documentary was shot over a period of four years, from 1998 through 2002, Agnes Martins ninetieth
year. Interviews with Martin are inter-cut with shots of her at work in her studio in Taos, New Mexico;
photographs and archival footage; and with images of her work from over fve decades. It is a venue for
Martin to speak about her work, her working methods and creative process as well as her life as an artist.
She also discusses her flm, Gabriel and reads from her poetry and lectures. In keeping with Martins chosen
life of solitude, she alone appears in the documentary.
Readings for Day 8 (Kandinsky and Rothko discussion)
Kandinsky: Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Introduction, and Chapter 6, The language of form and
colour, p 53-56 and 66-89.
Questions to respond to in journal.
1. Thinking of Kandinskys comment on primitive art on page 6, Like ourselves these artists sought to
express in their work only internal truths, renouncing in consequence all consideration of external
form, can you think of a work of art that would ft this statement? Explain why.
2. Concerning the Spiritual in Art was published almost 100 years ago, and Kandinsky was writing about his
dismay about how materialism has infected society with the despair of unbelief, a lack of purpose
and ideal. Has anything changed? How can the artist seek to promote this change?
What does Kandinksky think the artist can do to promote change?
Penner 21
3. In Chapter. 6, Kandinsky states, Form can stand alone as representing an object ... or as a purely
abstract limit to a space or a surface. Colour cannot stand alone: it cannot dispense with boundaries
of some kind. Do you think form can be independent of association? Can color ever be without
association?
4. On page 66 Kandinsky talks about the three mystical elements which are characterized as
personality, style and artistry.
When you think of your art, what is its personality? What is its style?
How do you want your art to help the cause of art (artistry)?
5. On page 77-78 Kandinsky refers to what black and white represent on a canvas. He also compares
black in a painting to a profound fnal pause or ending of a melody. One where if you would try
to continue the melody it would seem the dawn of another world. Look at the selection
of Kandinsky paintings in this assignment folder and describe whether you can relate his work to his
explanation of the effect of white and black.( Images: Improvisation 7, Composition IV, Picture
with a white form.)
Day 8 Artists with Spirit, Wassily Kandinsky and Mark Rothko
Kandinsky background info lecture
Discuss questions
Mark Rothko
Images: Improvisation 7, Composition IV, Picture with a white form

Penner 22
Background information for Kandinsky before reading discussion.
Wassily Kandinsky is considered the father of abstraction and a prophetic voice for the meaning of abstract
art. In 1911 he wrote On the Spiritual in Art, (Also called Concerning the Spiritual in Art, depending on the
translation). No one else had written on this topic from a secular perspective and it became a widely read
and infuential book. His goal in writing the book was to stimulate artists to see the materialism of society
and to discover the importance of creating art from an inner voice. He believed a work of art should
not depend on an external model such as nature, but rather come out of a persons spiritual being and
imagination.
1
In Kandinskys opinion humans were dominated by materialism and their feelings were under
threat of growing coarse.
2
He wanted art and music that portrayed states of minds and moods to protect
the soul from coarsening.
Art that rejected representational imagery and fowed from a persons spirit he called art with a noble
purpose. He described painting as ......an art, and art is not a vague production, transitory and isolated, but
a power that must be directed to the improvement and refnement of the human soul, A true artist must be
willing to search deeply into his own soul, develop and tend it, so that his art has something to clothe and
does not remain a glove without a hand.
3

In the Knowledge of Reality Magazine, that above quote is from, there is a statement about the current state
of art:
... art has gone progressively further in a bid to excite a response from an increasingly desensitised
audience, until there is a situation where performance artists will perform artworks involving urine
and faeces, nudity and sex, even going to the extent of cutting themselves up to elicit a response
from the audience. In the established galleries works like the Piss Christ, a sculpture of Christ
suspended in a glass frame flled with urine, or Mapplethorpes studies of homosexual men engaged
in sado-masochistic sexual activity and have attracted huge audiences, through the controversy these
artists have deliberately sought to cultivate.
4
Show Serrano, Piss Christ, Mapplethorpe, X Portfolio and a Kandinsky, Composition VIII

As you view the various images, what is your response to this statement?
Do you think the art mention above was created only for reaction?
Do you think it is less inspired than a Kandinsky?
Does Mapplethorpe or Serrano (Piss Christ) have any of the depth, void, subtle expression of the divine, or
beyond words quality that we associate with art that has a spiritual vitality?
Penner 23
How are you responding to some of Kandinskys thoughts about art and spirit?
Before we move into the reading discussion questions I want to make a few comments about Kandinskys
ideas about color. The second half of Concerning the spiritual in Art, is about color and its relationship to
form. He refers to the psychological effect of color as a spiritual vibration.
5
(page 49, Kandinsky) Specifc
references to color qualities include how a warm red will cause excitement while another shade may cause
pain or disgust because of its association with blood. Color can awaken a corresponding physical sensation,
which undoubted works on the soul. Very interestingly, Kandinsky also discusses the idea of sound
relationships and color. If you were to attach a sound to the color yellow, would it be in the treble or bass
clef? What about dark blue? Kandinsky suggests that yellow would be a high note and blue low. Interesting!
Both Kandinsky and Paul Klee both make many associations between sound and color. Are there musicians in
the class, what do you think of these ideas?

When asked by Schumann (composer) what the purpose of art was, Kandinsky replied, To send light into
the darkness of mens hearts, such is the duty of the competent artist.
6
Take a couple of minutes here to talk to the person beside you about what you think the purpose of art is.
Then I will ask each group to share what ideas they came up with.
Discuss questions from reading.
Mark Rothko
Watch the Mark Rothko section in the video The Power of Art by Simon Sharma (20 minutes)
I just realized as I was writing this introduction to Mark Rothko that both he and Kandinsky were Russian.
Rothko was born in Russia and then immigrated to United States with his family when he was a child. The
more I thought and read about Rothko, the more similarities I saw.: both started out studying law, although
Rothko quit much sooner.; both struggled with the idea of representational art and transitioned into the
abstract and for both of them color was used as a spiritual element in their work.
According to James Breslin who wrote Mark Rothko: A Biography, Rothko also had issues with materialism and
would have liked to keep his paintings out of the mire of the marketplace but of course he needed money
to live so had to sell them. His dislike of the marketplace was especially apparent when he was accepted the
commission to paint four large paintings for an exclusive restaurant in the Seagrams building in New York.
7
In Writings on Art, he also states how he hated the idea that the rich and famous would be dining and doing
business around his paintings and basically it seemed felt like he sold himself in the deal.
8
As is apparent in the Power of Art video, Rothko seems a more tormented person than Kandinsky and in that
way could be more easily compared to Van Gogh and it is also worth mentioning that both Van Gogh and
Rothko ended their own lives.
Kandinsky and Rothko talk about the silence or stillness of their art. Kandinsky states: The painter needs
discreet, silent, almost insignifcant objects,...How silent is an apple beside Laocon (pr: Lay aw ko wan). A
circle is even more silent.
9
(In Greek legend Laocon is the priest of Apollo, who warned the Greeks about
the Trojan horse.) Rothko mentions stillness in direct connection to the spirit: Art to me is an anecdote of
the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness.
10
Lucy
Lippard, art critic refers to Rothkos work as ftting in the tradition of silent or monochromatic paintings and
how their empty surface is a form of spiritual expression.
11
Penner 24
I also fnd Rothkos reasoning for creating large paintings interesting. He states, I paint very large pictures.
I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and
pompous. The reason I paint them, howeverI think it applies to other painters I know is precisely because
I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience,
to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger
picture, you are in it. It isnt something you command.
12
Rothko speaks of his own work as visually expressing what he thinks and his ultimate goal for a painting is
for the onlooker and the painting to have a relationship or a meeting of minds.
Take several minutes to refect on Black, brown and maroon.
Then respond to the following questions in a conversation with three people sitting near you
Do you like Rothkos work?
Write fve words that describe the painting.
Write down what emotion you feel when you look at it?
Do you feel there is a spiritual connection or spiritual element present when you are looking at
Rothkos work?
How do you respond to Roger Lipseys statement The mature work of Mark Rothko is one of
the great spiritual realizations of the 20th century. ...the paintings do not attempt to defne, they make
it [spirituality] visible and felt.
14
Week 5 and 6 will be presentations.
Penner 25
Penner 26
Notes

1. Ulrike Becks-Malorny,. Kandinsky (Taschen, Kln, 2007), 55-56.
2. Becks-Malorny, 56.
3. Max Lieberman & Michael McFadden (Knowledge of Reality Magazine 1996-2005. http://www.sol.
com.au/kor/9_01.htm)
4. (Knowledge of Reality Magazine 1996-2005. http://www.sol.com.au/kor/9_01.htm)
5. Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (Museum of Fine Arts Publications, Boston, 2006),
49.
6. Max Lieberman & Michael McFadden (Knowledge of Reality Magazine 1996-2005. http://www.sol.
com.au/kor/9_01.htm)
7. James E.B. Breslin, Mark Rothko: A Biography (University of Chicago Press, Chicago1993), 373.
8. Mark Rothko, Writings on Art, (Yale University Press, new Haven, 2006),131.
9. Maurice Tuchman, The spiritual in art: Abstract painting 1890-1985 (Los Angeles County Museum of
Art, Abbeville Press, New York,1986), 315.
10. Rothko, 45.
11. Tuchman, 317.
12. Foundation Beyler, Mark Rothko (Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2001), 25.
13. Foundation Beyler, 23.
14. Roger Lipsey, An art of our Own: The Spiritual in 20th Century Art (Shambhala Publications, Boston,
1988)307-08.
15. Donald Kaspit, Revisiting the Spiritual in Art (http://www.bsu.edu/web/jfllwalk/BrederKuspit/
RevisitingSpiritual.html)
Week 5-6: Student presentation of artists
Days 9-12
Presentation Assignment
Please select one of the following artists OR if you have another one you would like to research that is fne,
BUT you must clear it with me frst, and prepare a 15-20 minute presentation. (I realize the list is particularly
lacking in the music and poetry category and it these are you interests, I am very happy to have you fnd
artists in these felds.)
Your presentation needs to include the following:
biographical information of artist
artists thoughts on the link between their work and spirituality
evidence from others as to the reputation of this artist as having a spiritual context
your thoughts about how the work of this artists connects to your spirit
a good sampling of this persons work using Powerpoint or other image display software
a fve minute discussion or class exercise based on your learning about the artist
the day of your presentation please hand me an outline and bibliography (of at least 5 sources)
Robert Irwin
Douglas Wheeler
Anish Kapoor
Montien Boonma
Kazimir Malevich
Joseph Beuys
Barnett Newman
William Blake
Ernst Fuchs
Ad Reinhardt
Andy Goldsworthy
Yves Klein
Sam Francis
Vincent VanGogh
Emma Kunz,
Meinrad Craighead
Georgia Okeefe
Sonya Delauney
Frieda Kahlo
Magdalena Abokonowics
Louise Nevelson
Hildegard of Bingen
Joseph M.W. Turner
Alberto Giacometti
Samuel Beckett
Paul Klee
Piet Mondrian
Mark Tobey
James Turrell
Music:
Philip Glass
John Cage
Nam June Paik
Penner 27
Week 7-8: Art as a spiritual practice: fnding your voice
Day 13
Journal Assignment
Before we study the recommendations of others on how to fnd your voice I would like you to
write a two page (or more as needed) paper describing how you approach a creative project.
Please send this to me via email and a Word attachment.
Some questions you might explore are:
How do you come up with ideas?
What type of imagery appeals to you?
Has that changed in the last few years?
How do you feel as you are working on the art?
How do you feel when you are done?
How do you feel when you look at/read/hear the work?
What art have you seen/read/heard that has given you a deep sense of joy?
Creative assignment:
Dream and meditation journal, can be writing or image based. Please record three dreams in the next
few weeks that seem signifcant. Do these dreams or the recording of them give you any new thoughts
or inspiration for directions in your art practice?
Class activities:
Listen and participate in the section on Buddhist meditation in Getting Unstuck by
Pema Chodron
Go to Spacious Heart Studio and have Kara Schmidt do a session on the practice of yoga
and creativity.
How can we embark on this journey to create art that builds a signifcant
spiritual awareness in ourselves and the viewer?
In the next two weeks we will explore some methods that other artists employ to ready themselves to
create art. We will look at work by Alex Grey and cover some of the ideas he discusses in The Mission
of Art for getting your self in the right context for deepening your art. From there we will discuss the
suggestions made by Deborah Haynes in Art Lessons. The psychologist Carl Jung also spent time studying
dream life in the context of fnding your inner voice to create signifcant imagery. We will explore the
possibilities of using dreams to facilitate in the fnding of meaningful images in your art.
Alex Grey
According to Alex Grey each artist must defne a mission; they must set specifc intentions for the
actions they want to perform. This mission is determined by his or her view of life derived from a
personal connection with the divine to the greatest depths possible. The artist attempts to make those
inner truths visible or audible, sensible in some way, via an external material-world manifestations (such
as a painting or song).
1
Penner 28
Grey also feels strongly that completed work needs to be exhibited or performed for an audience.
Exhibition brings the artist out of the studio beginning a communal, interactive life for the art work that
brings pleasure and invites refection, to be an object of infuence and commerce. When an artwork is
exposed it becomes interpreted or internalized by a culture.
2
Grey outlines the following steps for deepening your art.
3
It all comes down to intention.
4
Preliminaries
1. Remembrance: Remember we only have a limited time to live and do our art, so we should quit
stalling and get on with our creative spiritual work. Remember the source of your inspiration.
2. Forgiveness: Forgive yourself and others for coming between you and creativity. Dont pollute your
fow of creative energy with hatred and resentment.
3. Invention: Invention is like a starter for the engine of creativity. Pledge to do your best work for the
highest good, to practice your art as a way of spiritually awakening yourself and others. This can help
purify or restructure your baser motives, such as how famous you might become or how much
money you could get for a work.
4. Consecration: Offer yourself and your tools to divine infuence. Pray at the onset of your creative
project. Pray prayers of wonder and appreciation. Pray for inspiration, stabilization of the mind and
body, and submission to the divine will. Ask for the blessings of spirit on your methods and
materials.
5. Revelation: Access the highest grounds of the divine imagination by whatever means necessary. Bring
fresh insights and visionary imagery back to share.
6. Repentance: The change of heart and mind that accompanies revelation must not be woven
into your life by bringing them to form. Art becomes a vessel of this change of heart and functions a
repentance, a way of getting right with the spirit.
Practice
1. Creation as meditation: Enter into a state of clarity and connection with your artistic subject. ... a
free fow of art energy is not the prolongation of one single calm sate but the recognition and
integration of the freshness in the present moment. Disappear into the eternal now.
2. Possession: Allow your self to possessed by your creative daimon, whether as a guiding angel
or bodhisattva or a healing or energetic force. link up with the beam of creative light that Spirit has
prepared for you. ...Visualize yourself joined with the highest forms of love and wisdom while you
are working.
3. Appreciation: As a swimmer comes up for breath after many strokes, step back and appreciate the
symbolic signifcance of your process and subject. Remember you are a creator creating, a
microcosm of the great Creator, and get back to work.
4. Refection: At the end of a work period, see what you have done with your physical, emotional,
mental, intuitive and spiritual eyes. Listen deeply to your hearts truth and directions. Correct
yourself and develop faith in the wisdom of your personal creative process.
Penner 29
Integration
1. Share your work: You have been given a creative gift; ... Find your artistic family and support network
and honor them. The mere process of fxing imagery onto surfaces or forms does not ensure
spiritual development. It is the intention and awareness from which artists create that determine
whether their work will serve mammon, ego or spirit.
Small group discussions:
Which ideas do you connect with? How can you incorporate these ideas into your art praxis?
Day 14
Deborah Haynes, PH.D. (fne art and religion, Harvard)
In Art Lessons, Deborah Haynes shares her holistic methods for bringing a spiritual focus to your art. She
divides her ideas for shaping yourself as an artist into three categories: Forming the mind, Disciplining
the body and Cultivating the spirit. Her lessons are based on the idea that artists are made primarily
out of intention, imagination, and creative action, but she believes that setting your intention is the most
important.
5
Her mantra for an artistic life do everything as well as you can comes from the Balinese,
who say We have no art, we do everything as best as we can.
6
Each chapter of her book deals with an
aspect of an artists life refecting on and reinforcing the idea that your life is your art.
In the section on Forming a Mind, Haynes begins with Aesthetic Education. While this may incorporate
the philosophical study of art, what she teaches is that in addition to creating art an artist must be a
citizen of the world, knowledgeable about the past, analytical about the present and refective about the
future.
7
She encourages artists to:
write as a form of observation,
develop a relationship to a sustaining tradition,
develop technical skills,
understand contemporary cultural theory (such as ecology and feminism), and
understand for whom you create; this last can help you break free of pressures to conform in the
art world.
In the second section Disciplining the body, she explores the word discipline from two perspectives.
First, there is the perspective of training yourself to get in to the studio daily. By getting into the studio
daily we improve technique and keep creating art. Secondly, she looks at how an artist needs to be
self-disciplined in order to stay in good physical condition by learning to eat properly, by letting nature
nourish your body and spirit, and by learning to know yourself and what you value.
8
Cultivating Spirit looks at an artists inner life. Haynes encourages artists to maintain a daily
contemplative practice to enhance well-being and creative thought. She includes an interesting chapter
called Towards a Theology of Art. Theology is defned as language about God,
9
and she has come to
the conclusion that images are an effcacious means for expressing human understanding of the divine.
10

This statement reminds me of one made by Dominique De Menil at the dedication of the Rothko Chapel in
1971, We are cluttered with images and only abstract art can bring us to the threshold of the divine.
11

As both Grey and Haynes recommend, many visionary artists have developed a contemplative or
meditation practice. Meditation can be a method for discovering a subject matter or once you have a
subject matter for deciding upon how to develop it.
Penner 30
Meditation
12
There are many techniques for meditation and you must fnd the method that works best for you
personally, and for your goals. It does not matter which technique you choose, the foundation of all
techniques is to focus your attention and quiet your mind. There are varying levels of meditation:
quieting, observing and contemplating and there are active and inactive techniques. I will begin with an
explanation of the levels of meditation and then move into a few of the varieties of techniques.
Quieting your mind
The goal of these exercises is to improve concentration. We must learn how to focus in order to bring
the endless stream of thoughts to a standstill and to limit our thoughts to only those that are relevant
for this moment. Quieting our mind by means of focus and concentration is for most people the most
diffcult and the most important aspect of meditation. So it is not surprising that the greatest part of all
meditation techniques concentrate on this aspect. The better your focus, the easier it becomes to get
into a deeply meditative state. Coming out of a meditative state is often the time when fresh ideas will
surface that can impact your art and its direction.
Observing your mind
The next level is learning how to become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and sensory
perceptions. Different from the exercises for clearing the mind, observing meditation allows us to
welcome all our thoughts and physical sensations. We accept our sensations and thoughts as they are by
not judging, letting things go, and being patient. This helps us to minimize the impact of our thoughts on
our actions; we become observers instead of participants. In this level of meditation the artist can focus
on observing thoughts about their art and explore these sensations.
Contemplation and self examination
During contemplation and self examination our perspective becomes wider, and we see our problems
less like problems, allowing us to become ready for self-examination and contemplation. Through
contemplation and self research, we learn to understand our nature and the working of our mind. How
does your mind work, how dependent are you on certainties, how do you involuntarily make your
suffering worse or better? Insight gives us a strong motivation to start working on our problems. What
about you infuences the way you do art? What are your artistic goals and what is keeping you from
attaining them.?

Some meditation techniques involve focused movements. We strengthen our attention and our
awareness by focusing on our motions. The most well-known forms of motion meditation are Tai Chi and
Yoga. In this class we will have a Tai Chi and Yoga instructor speak to us about creativity and spirituality in
the context of Tai Chi and yoga.
Use of image
Another type of meditation is to meditate with an image. In Tibetan Buddhism these images are called
Yantras. Perhaps you are working on a visual art project and are not sure about the next step. Meditating
by looking long and deeply with a quiet mind can help you explore your work in unexpected ways.
Meditation of any technique can be creatively applied to all aspects of our life.
Dreams
Dream life is another realm to explore for inspirational ideas and understanding of your art. Many artists
can stimulate dreams about an art work by focusing on it before sleep or even hanging it at the end of
their bed. Other artists use their dreams as topics to explore more deeply in their work.
Penner 31
Carl Jung, psychologist who strongly promoted dream work for use in psychotherapy, created many
mandala (mandala means circle) paintings based on dreams. Most visionary artists use dreams as a source of
inspiration at one time or another and regard dream life with respect.
There are techniques we can use to remember or create dreams: writing them down immediately upon
waking in the middle of the night is one that may people use. You can even buy special pens for this that
have small light so you dont have to turn on a bright light. I for one do not like waking up enough to write.
I have found that I if I can repeat my dream to myself three times before I fall asleep again, I will be able to
remember it enough to write it down in the morning and details will fall into place as I recreate the shell.
In Technicians of Ecstasy: Shamanism and the modern artist, Mark Levy writes about how artists access and
utilize their dreams. In our western culture dreams have little value, but some artists have found them
to be unlimited sources of inspiration. Salvador Dalis work was frequently born out of dreams. In his
autobiography Dali speaks of how diligently he would record his dreams and also would put his easel with
paintings in process at the end his bed so that he would look at them immediately before going to sleep
and be more likely to dream about them. This is actually a technique called dream programming.
13
Dream
programming can also be done by using verbal clues or writing down what you would like to dream about
before falling asleep in order to direct your dreams.

Penner 32
While there are as many methods of inspiration as there are artists, most times fnding the inspiration is
the easy part. The hard part is making the time and space to actually create the work. Unfortunately, the
philosophy of R.G. Collingwood, where the idea is the art and the realization of the idea in concrete form is
only a secondary goal, does not secure much recognition in the 21 century.

In Art and Fear, David Bayles and Ted Orland speak about the many distractions that keep artists from
creating their ideas. Like Haynes suggests in Art Lessons intention is very important for creating an artist, but
in the end the work the artist fnishes is the only thing that counts.
It can be very diffcult to sustain the practice of creating art, especially art that has a deeper meaning.
Visionary art takes time, patience and vulnerability. It may not be easily understood by the viewer and the
artist may get discouraging feedback. Most artists also have a day job and carving out time for art can be
diffcult. What are some solutions to this?
What are some factors in your life and art that keep you creating?
How does subject matter affect your interest?
How does the medium of the work affect your ability to sustain your art praxis?
We will explore these and many more are questions in the next two weeks as we devote time to create
work and critiquing the process.
Day 15
Trip to Spacious Heart Yoga Studio, for a session on Yoga practice and meditation.
Day 16
Ti Chi session and some practice of Buddhist meditation with Pema Chodraon CD.

Penner 33
Penner 34
Notes

2. Grey, 25.
3. Grey, 215-217.
4. Grey, 205
5. Deborah J. Haynes, Art Lessons: Meditations of the Creative Life (Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado,
2003), 4.
6. Haynes, 4.
7. Haynes, 7.
8. Haynes, 69-110.
9. Haynes, 168.
10. Haynes, 169.
11. James E. B. Breslin, Mark Rothko: A Biography (University of Chicago Press, 1993), 459.
12. ABC-of-yoga.com
13. Mark Levy, Technicians of Ecstasy: Shamanism and the modern artist (Bramble Books, Connecticut,
1993), 162.

Week 9-10: Creating art that has a bridge to the soul
Days 17-20: Studio Work
It is expected that you spend at least 6 hours out of class each week.
Prior to class
Choose your medium. There are both pros and cons for choosing a medium you are already familiar with.
If you choose something you are familiar with it is easy to fall into old patterns, if you choose a medium you
have not used there new technical aspects to work with. You are welcome to work in different media
each day.
Available supplies:
watercolor paint and paper
acrylic paint and canvas
oil paint and canvas
pastels and paper
colored pencils and paper
clay and appropriate tools for sculpture
soapstone for sculpture and appropriate tools
mixed media for collage (glue and supplies)
drawing supplies
If there are specifc things you need, please let me know and I will do my best to supply them.
Come to the studio with this mind set:
exchange judgement for curiosity
let your intuition have a voice
this is a time for quiet, if you wish to talk with someone, that is fne, but please go into the
other room.
Upon entering class
take a few minutes to create a space for yourself either at a table or easel.
read through the Preparation steps from Alex Grey that we studied in class.
What will you create?
This studio time is your time to explore your artistic spirit. If you are struggling with imagery some ideas to
ponder would be:
What dreams could provide imagery or feelings for you to represent visually?
When are you most at peace? What does that look like?
How could you visually represent a meaningful poem or song?
During meditation, what images or feelings surfaced?
If you were a child what you do with the materials?
It may be helpful to journal in words or sketches about your ideas
The last 15 minutes of Day 17 (frst studio day) we will gather and refect on the studio time.
What were your thoughts? How did you approach your art making?
Penner 35
Penner 36
Day 18-19
Develop a habit that helps center you before you begin making art.
This may be as simple as arranging your materials in a specifc way, it may be spending a few quiet moments
in front of your art. What is appropriate for you?
The purpose of this type of ritual is to help you enter into your art with a calm and open mind. To honor
yourself and your art.
There will be time at the end of class to share your ritual if you wish.
Please bring to class a plan of what you would like to accomplish in the next 4 studio sessions. Do not think
just in terms of what tangible products you would like, but also about how you would like to develop as an
artist with spirit. You will hand this in.
For each class day write a paragraph of what you would like to accomplish. If your plans change please
hand in a new plan.
Each day the last 15-30 minutes of class will be spend in conversation as a group about what you are creating.
Above all enjoy!
Day 20
Last class period.
The last 30 minutes will be spent refecting on course as a whole.
You will have until the end of the next week to fnish art and hand in.
Bibliography
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Where art and spirit meet

Art that creates a bridge to the soul.

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