“You use a mirror
to see your face, you use art to see your soul.”
George Bernard Shaw
What is Expressive Art?
Realistic art—which many of us were taught in school—is objective. It depicts the external world. In this kind of art-making, creators direct their focus outside of themselves. Usually, the goal is to create an end-product that reflects the outer world and pleases others.
Expressive art is subjective. Whether writing, drawing, or constructing with paper, expressive artists set aside objective standards in order to explore their inner worlds. While making expressive art, their focus is within. They create from the inside out.
To sidestep the inner critic and its limiting judgments, expressive artists sometimes create using their subdominant hand, or by drawing with eyes closed. In addition to paper, pens, and pencils, a host of other media may be used: clay, feathers, beads, pebbles—whatever the creative impulse suggests. Those who write often express themselves through pithy phrases, poems, and fairy tales. Others enact their creativity through un-programmed movements and sounds. Expressive art is free play.
Expressive Art as a Spiritual Practice
Historically, the field of expressive art has encouraged portrayals of the ordinary, personal self. At the Living Arts Center, we also depict the ordinary self, with its limitations, desires, and talents. But at the Center, we focus primarily on our spiritual heart—the divine indwelling. This inmost, core part of ourselves never hurts. It is the self found in the silence—always full, always able, always love. Intuiting its nearness, we use the expressive arts to explore the bond between our narrow, personal self and our vast, divine nature.
At the Center, our work is spiritual, not only because of the content of our art, but also because of how we create. Our art-making is a meditation-in-action. We begin by quieting our minds—by shifting from thinking to self-sensing. Then, while remaining in wordless self-awareness, we notice any images, colors, sounds, or sensations that arise. Next, we express whatever we’ve found, either on paper, or through spontaneous movements. We notice, too, whether these experiences are coming from our narrow self, or from our spacious essence. In time, we may also come to know the divine as the core and substratum of our individuality.
While we create, we consider our expressions to be acts of self-giving—offerings to our divine core. These gestures of surrender deepen our relationship with this essential self. When our art work is complete, we remain mentally still, open to receiving from—and resting in—this inmost well-spring of love.
Quieting thoughts, sensing one’s inner world, distinguishing personal experiences from divine ones, and surrendering to the God within are essential skills taught in many traditions. At the Living Arts Center, we practice these basic spiritual skills through expressive art-making. As we acquire these skills through the expressive arts, we grow in our ability to enact them in daily life.
The Practices
During Art of Surrender meetings, we offer ourselves to our spiritual heart, using the expressive arts. Sensing our inner world, we invite words, images, or physical gestures to symbolize an aspect of our personality, and of our divine nature. Then, we allow these two symbols to entwine. Often, a new creative expression emerges that joins these symbols in surprising ways. Each time we allow this symbolic merging, we glimpse the God within as our true home. Over time, an enduring friendship—a “spiritual marriage”—can emerge between the human and divine aspects of ourselves. Opportunities for discussion follow these sacred art experiences.
In Word Weavers gatherings, we contemplate the writings of spiritual poets, like Rumi. Building upon the tradition of contemplative reading in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, we begin by listening attentively to a poem or verse, noticing the thoughts, images, memories, body sensations, and emotions that arise within us. Then in response, we draw, write, or use other art forms to express this “inner stirring.” Afterward, there is ample time to share our creative expressions.
The Community
At the Living Arts Center, we welcome people of many backgrounds. Gathering as Sufis, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, and agnostics, we explore our inner worlds together through the expressive arts.
Life-affirming mystics, we meet to make tangible our innate unity with the indwelling God. Please read through these pages, and see if you feel drawn to explore the threshold where heart meets art.