ART TALK:
I’m doing a series of small articles on: Art, Identity and spirituality. My favorite three topics. How are they related? How they are One or integrated in God, and should be integrated in us!
 Our ability to creatively communicate or express is part of being human. And is meant to be attached to our core identity, which must be centered in something other than itself to function well. Preferably something or Someone Higher. This is why healing begins by admitting we need a higher power, or something bigger than ourselves as our ground of being.
 Core identity is governed by spirit under the influence of whatever you have placed at the center of your life-ie is centered on whatever is our Ultimate. Create expression will flow from that well. So whatever we place at the center of our lives will determine expression. This is one of my core ideas.
What we read, when we look at art:
Art is a symbolic expression of what is at your center (individually and collectively). Art shows us what people have at their core. Art reflects what is lodged at our core. Statues of ourselves, statues of dieties, statues of ideals art about art etc. We express what is at our core, and what is flowing out of it. What we symbolize from and therefore about, is whatever we place at the center of our lives. What is placed at the center of highest value in our lives- that is ultimately what art ends up flowing from. Our expression flows from our core. It can do so directly, or abstractly. It can do so through any medium.
 So, one way to study cultural history, or what makes a person tick, is to look at their art, to see what its core is like, or is made of. I studied comparative religious art in school—specifically art flowing from mystical traditions. It becomes clear, that people and cultures express individually and collectively from whatever is at their center. Their primary concern in life. Their ultimate.
Art reflects what’s at the true center of your life. What you have placed at the core of your being, determines and informs outer expression. So what is there is readable as expression.
 If you have the Torah at your center, then the Torah will flow out from there, as one Rabbi put it. Whatever you place at your core, will be expressed through your creativity—directly or indirectly. I like this thought. It helps in reading other cultures. Sort of symbolic mapping. And it’s a cool way to study art history.
There are times in religious history, where the symbol itself was controlled, or even cut off, detached from the core identity. But in a healthy situation, what you see expressed is flowing from what is there at the core of that person or culture.
 This is another reason art is valuable, it allows you to read beneath the surface into what is really there.
Of course creative expression also flows back in strengthening or decaying the core. You see this with the use of propaganda, or much advertising, or porn, which corrupts the core identity. But it’s meant to work the other way around. Center outwards towards symbolic expression.
Our Center, our inner Identity, the seat of self, is really where healing and governing of self take place. But we can access it through creativity. Which is one of the reasons art can be healing. It allows us to get at the core of self, and see what needs to be cleared and rooted there.
 Even in cities, the symbols we see flow from inner collective identity. Sometimes they are detached or ushering from wounds, but they are meant to be flowing from core identity, and whatever is lodged there. We create from who we are. It expresses us. Identity precedes art, but art is an extension of it. Healing begins in the center, and is determined by what is placed there by the will. Even the way people dress reveals their inner life.
 As I’ve said before, how a city dresses reveals her current state of Identity health. How healthy is yours. Can you read where she’s at, based on her symbols? What about in your own life. How well do your symbols reflect your inner life and what you have placed at the true core of your life.
 What is at your center, or who or what is there, and how is it expressing itself outwardly for others to read! In what ways do your creativity and identity need to be properly connected in collaboration? Is your spirituality informing both? If you have placed some form of spirituality at your center, how is it expressing itself? What symbols does your spirituality create through you? If your spirituality is Jesus, is He centered in you, and freely expressing Himself through your creativity? Does He make overtly religious art, or something more indirect? Since He works through our authentic identities, and actually teaches us who we are, and tells us who we are, do you feel free to just express from your true self, or do you feel like you have to overtly make it about Him? Just some questions towards integration.
Art is a way of expressing from core identity. Our identity is meant to be based in Christ, who is the Center of all things. If it is, our creativity flows authentically and uninterruptedly from that clear Center.
 Our art self, needs to be connected to our True Identity, then both our spiritual perception and expression will be integrated. We see as we are, we express from who we really are. We find out who we really are, by Centering in the right Center.
 Some basics:
 Spirituality: what do you ground yourself in? What is your upper story or Ultimate ground of being for yourself? What’s your higher?
Identity: who are you, and how do you find that out?
Creativity: how do you express authentically from who you are?
How do these three areas integrate into one fluid express of the poem you are?
We are as humans all three–we are spiritual, we have identity, and we are creative. So the three have to come into a tandem and mutually blessing relationship.
What are some ways we can practice that integrational process? My next article is on this topic.