Art, Music, and God

My love of the humanities including all types of music and art cannot be expressed.  The depth and breadth of our creativity is overwhelming.  Art and music reflect our most inner soul and our experience of humanity.  In my Synthesis of Humanities class we were asked to answer the question - What is art?  My answer is that art is reflected in all that we do – we are all artists.  However, we can ask what is great art and that can lead to passionate debate.  So I reframed the question in my paper for the class. 

The question I have been asking myself is not “But is it Art?” but rather how does art help me to live the examined life?  How does living an examined life help us to make decisions that affect our daily lives and relationships – the concrete, seemingly measurable acts performed day to day?  Living an examined life can be very painful because it reveals truths about ourselves that require us to act – to change our own behavior.  If we didn’t study humanities or art then we are confined by our limited experiences and   innate ability to process those experiences or to understand other perspectives.  We live in an enclosed world that is safe.  But is living the examined life by studying art, theology, philosophy, literature, history, culture, and music sufficient to solve humanities problems?  My conclusion is that it leads to a “combination of separate elements of sensation or thought into a whole; the combination of the partial truths of a thesis and it antitheses into a higher stage of truth.”  (“Webster’s)  It is my opinion that it is difficult to forgive or love without understanding through perspectives provided in art, literature, philosophy, and music.  To each life a perspective is born.  But only through the grace of God can we understand the whole.

Einstein and the Unconsciousness

“No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it.”

- Albert Einstein– Nobel Prize Physicist

Einstein is my favorite philosopher and the following quote is the one I most reflect upon – “No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it.”  Dictionary.com defines consciousness as the “awareness of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings;” “the thoughts and feelings, collectively of an individual or of an aggregate of people.”  

Einstein is making several points in his quote.  The first point is in solving problems we focus on what we are aware, but the solution often lies in what we do not see or is unconscious of in our minds.  So how do we bring the unconscious into our conscious?  Einstein believed it was through intuition, which is “the sacred gift.”  He believed that the theories he postulated were not of his volition.   Which leads to another question, what if the collective consciousness of humanity is insufficient to solve our problems?  Are we doomed as a human race? 

We already know that humanity has only been on Earth a short period of time.  We cannot solve our physicality – we eventually all die as individuals and as a species. Only with a higher consciousness, that of God, can we survive.   So we can believe God does not exist and continue down our path of extinction.  Or we can believe God exists and that we are not alone to solve our own problems.   It is a conscious choice under free will we choose.   Those who claim we are mortal, ignore the experiences of God including the presence of the Holy Spirit, which is not discussed widely in our western scientific society.  Einstein is pointing out our experience of God is based on intuition or faith.  Only if we use reason and our intuition can we solve the problems of our humanity.

The Bible

So far I have discussed God communicating with us through our souls, each other and the Holy Spirit.   But I must pause today to think about the Bible.   God has communicated with man for thousands of years and that conversation is written in the Holy Bible.  So many scholars have researched the origin of the words spoken through the Bible by examining texts in different languages – Hebrew, Latin, and Greek among many to understand the original intent.  

To me the Bible describes our relationship with God spoken through metaphors, stories, parables, and poetry.  It is amazing that I have friends who have read the Bible several times that can quote God’s guidance on many topics. One friend says she has prayed to thirst for God’s Word and it is like water to her and she has read the Bible three times through.   For me, reading the Bible is one of the most difficult tasks to complete.   My simple understanding of God is that he is not vengeful or punishing, but when we do not love as God loves, then we commit evil acts leading to our own destruction and downfall.   To me the Bible tells the story not of a God who changes from the Old Testament to the New Testament, but rather our evolving understanding and revelations of God’s grace. 

Why Cats Paint

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”

—Leonardo da Vinci – Italian Polymath

Years ago while visiting the St. Louis Art Museum I found a beautiful book in the gift store titled, “Why Cats Paint – A theory of feline aesthetics.”  The book illustrates with wonderful photos, twelve different cats painting with their paws.  I immediately loved this book because I love my cats and I love art.  The authors Heather Busch and Burton Silver put together a creative picture that speaks of the concept of different types of cats and art such as: Charlie – the Peripheral Realist, Ginger – Neo-Synthesis, and Minnie – Abstract Expressionist.  I smile every time I look at the pictures of cats painting their art.    

I am thinking about this book because I was rereading the Origins of Genius by Dean Keith Simonton and I found my handwritten notation of the words Why Cats Paint next to the sentence “the associative processes of artistic geniuses often must reach for the more bizarre associated links.”  The author, Dean, is actually discussing two types of creative geniuses – “the intuitive genius which can generate more possible associative pathways connecting two given concepts, with many of these pathways operating at unconscious levels.”  And the analytical genius, who has a set number of pathways.  The author postulates that the intuitive genius is more often found in the creative arts and the analytical genius in the sciences.    As I think about symbols and the multitude of meanings and associations in each, I realize that one symbol can communicate many different perspectives and thoughts.   These perspectives and thoughts can therefore, communicate multiple “positions” or pathways.  Then I started thinking how our souls are not within time.  Could our souls know something our humanity and consciousness is not aware of when we create symbols or art, but in retrospect reveals a position or pathway?