MOSFA Spiritual Grant Artist Statement
Introduction
Spirituality has always been the underlying theme and motivation for my photography. Making art is the activity through which I have always looked for answers and sought connection with others and something greater than myself. Throughout my life and art, I have pursued a path that points toward the divine mystery. In 1991, three years after graduating with an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, I was actively looking for someone that could guide me through a transformational process, that would bring me closer to that mystery.
I’d read several books by the Benedictine monk and Christian yogi, Fr. Bede Griffiths. I felt drawn to the wisdom in Griffith’s words about compassion, religious tolerance, and mysticism. They awakened a longing in my heart and I felt compelled to go to his home in India to meet him and learn more from him. In 1993 I wrote to Griffiths and asked for his blessings to visit him in India. Shortly after I posted the letter, I heard that Griffiths was scheduled to attend the 100-year anniversary of the Parliament for the World’s Religions in Chicago. I traveled to the conference with the sole purpose of connecting with Griffiths.
After arriving and settling in at the conference I learned that Griffiths had passed away. Overwhelmed by the news, I met with a group of priests that made the trip from Griffith’s Ashram/Church in India and were mourning his death. Their advice to me was to stay and absorb as many blessings as I could, from as many people as I could over the next 9 days.
All around the conference there was an atmosphere of unity and hope. The spirit of religious and spiritual devotion filled the air. I felt an enveloping sense of joy while in the presence of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Wiccan, Zoroastrian, Muslim, Bahá’í, and Native American spiritual leaders (also others from many other spiritual paths). Being in the presence of those beings had a profound impact on my life and has continued to influence my artwork and spiritual path over the last 28 years.
What is the role of spirituality in your life?
Dewitt Jones once said, “…God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes.”* My spiritual practice nourishes and sustains my artistic practice. My daily spiritual practice consists of prayer, visualizations, offerings, mindfulness meditation, and making photographs. These practices inform my art, which is an offering of love, human connection, and spiritual devotion. Art is an inseparable part of my spiritual practice, which I hope is also received as an offering of beauty. I view my artwork as an exploration and contemplation of religious tolerance, diverse spiritual beliefs, and finding the common threads of hope, faith, and wonder that run throughout all our spiritual practices
The moments fixed in my photos remind me that this spiritual opportunity we have while on the earth is temporary. Our time here is limited and reflecting on this fact motivates me to pursue my spiritual practice ever more deeply.
How has art changed you?
I’ll never forget the sense of awe I felt the first time I saw the original artworks of Caravaggio, Botticelli, da Vinci, and Raphael while I studied art in Italy. Or the overwhelming sense of wonder I felt while surrounded by the sacred artworks in the Vatican. Or what it was like to sense the miraculous when I stood before the ancient, sculpture covered temples and shrines in Kathmandu and Varanasi. I’m grateful to have had these opportunities to open my heart and senses to these miraculous, inspiring wonders! This art has certainly changed me.
American born spiritual teacher, Swami Rudrinanda taught that one could receive some of the creative, spiritual energy needed for inner growth by visualizing and breathing in the radiant spiritual energy emanating from great works of art. He believed that growth toward self-realization could only be achieved by receiving higher levels of divine, transformative energy (blessings) through practices like this. I think the lesson that Rudrinanda was teaching was that being transformed by art is an active in principle, not passive. As for me, I believe I am transformed by art because it is my intention, my desire to be changed.
The more open and receptive I am to art, the more blessings I receive, the more growth I experience in my creative ideas, my awareness of divine influence in art, and my authentic connections to other people. Seeing and being in the presence of masterful art nourishes and energizes my soul. It inspires me to practice my own creative abilities to their fullest capacity in ways that allow me to change, to grow spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally. Looking at art is a catalyst for change (growth), but so is the hard work and resources I put into my photography practice.
My spiritual practice has grown because of my commitment to my photography practice. Art and spirituality each support the other. The creative process provides a multitude of opportunities for me to transform my negative emotions and perceptions, to become more aligned with virtue, generosity, and kindness. Photography helps me to be mindful enough that I can practice kindness and compassion when working with the people I photograph. I am given countless opportunities to strengthen my capacity for acceptance and to be non-judgmental. When the photos are finished, I try to practice generosity when offering prints as gifts to those people I photograph. All these practices remind me to change my thoughts and actions from any immediate negative responses, to actions that are tolerant, accepting, kind, and loving.
Photography is the vehicle I use to transform self-reflective experiences into tangible opportunities through which I can connect outwardly with the world. I exhibit the photos with the hope that viewers will respond with feelings of curiosity, tolerance, acceptance, and love. I feel that over the years, the act of looking at and making art have been important practices that continue to help me cultivate the inner change and growth I need to align my thoughts, feelings, and actions with my spiritual aspirations.
What is the role of art in transformation, both at the personal and at the global level?
As mentioned, art offers two opportunities to contribute to spiritual growth and transformation. The first, and most widely available opportunity on a global and personal level is through the direct experience of works of art. It’s moving to stand in the presence of original artworks that express the artist’s connection with something greater than themselves. I believe that great artworks hold the memories from the artist’s longing as it brought them into existence!
A photograph captures a scene, but also qualities of the photographer’s experience. That said, it doesn’t mean that viewers will receive or understand that experience from the artwork. Each viewer of a photograph will have their own unique experience, partly because their viewing encounter is influenced by their own unique life experience. But if the viewer sets out to connect with the divine spark that brought an artwork into being, they very well may find it!
The work of artists like Rubens, Vermeer, and Dürer offer viewer opportunities to immerse themselves in a transcendent and potentially transformative experience. Photographs by artists like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, John Daido Loori, and Minor White invite the viewer to surrender to an intimate, almost mystical relationship between the observer and the artwork. The viewer need only recognize and be open to an artwork’s transcendent qualities to experience the transformative mysteries that are freely offered.
My participation with a global-level interaction has been through my website, exhibitions, and talks I give around the world. I have spoken at and exhibited my photographs in museums and galleries in India, Europe, Canada, and across the United States. I believe in the capacity for the photos to connect with others, especially when viewers experience the presence of original, large scale prints…all in the contemplative silence of an exhibition space.
And yet the miraculous aspect of this kind of art experience is that viewer doesn’t have to be standing in front of original prints! The invitation is made from every reproduction in a book, a calendar, a copy of a print, or even a reproduction on a computer screen! Anyone with a cell phone and a Google app can experience having their souls touched and be made to feel more whole and joyful from the experience. Art has the potential to bring peace and joy to an individual, while also elevating the entire collective human spirit!
The second role of art in transformation is offered for the artist alone, in the collaborative creation of artwork. I use the word “collaboration” to honor that sensation an artist gets that the making of artwork has been inspired, sustained, and born by a force greater than one’s own limited skill and talent. This kind of blessing influence (which I have experienced) can transform the self-absorbed, egotistic tunnel vision of the artist into feelings of gratitude and humility. Hopefully it can also give some capacity for the work to share these feelings.
Because my own nature is to be self-interested and narcissistic, it took over 20 years for me to recognize the presence of a creative blessing energy and to embrace the positive inner changes that this kind of energy offers. I can only respond now with gratitude and appreciation for all the inspiration and opportunities to share with others through visual art. My heart and soul have been touched by strangers from all over the world because I sought them out or they found me to be photographed. Even apart from the making of artworks, these meetings with others have transformed my negative and hopeless views of humanity into compassion, mindfulness, and hope. It makes me pray that I become more selfless. I pray that actions I take as an artist will ripple out from my works and benefit others as those ripples continue across the global community.
How do you plan to develop your art as it reflects in your ongoing spiritual journey?
Photography brings awareness to my eyes, heart, and soul. It turns my attention to the multifaceted human presentations of devotion, worship, and faith. My work celebrates spiritual diversity while also honoring the unique presentations and qualities of each person’s spiritual practice. Photography highlights all the visual manifestations of the divine mystery and has the capacity to do so in a way that encourages viewers to examine the world more deeply, to respond with curiosity, reverence, and joy. Through these qualities, photography connects me (and hopefully others) to the divine.
There is an entire world of people, spiritual practices, and home altars from which to receive blessings! There are so many places I want to go and people I want to meet and photograph! I feel that the blessings I receive from every altar I photograph inspires me to work harder and go more deeply into my own spiritual practice. I feel elevated by seeing how each person’s altar has been made as a beautiful expression of devotion, love, adoration, and commitment to the higher power with which each person seeks to connect.
I see the people I photograph as role models in many ways. They invite me, a stranger, into their homes to photograph one of their most intimate spaces. Their openness and willingness to be photographed teaches me about the many ways the divine can manifest all around us, even in the strangers we meet! We need only to open our eyes enough to see, with gratitude, the blessings all around us!
What are your thoughts for the new work you want to create?
My plan for future artwork includes travel so I can connect with and photograph a greater diversity of people and their altars. One of the ways I make those connections is through my Instagram account, @daily.altars where people from all over the world submit photos of their home altars. I would like to make more connections with Christian communities since I have very few photos of Christian home altars. I’m building those connections now for possible post-pandemic travels.
An important goal for new artwork is to photograph a man who is a fourth-generation alchemist who uses photography as a central part of his spiritual practice. I find his views on the connections between photography and the “Great Work” fascinating! I have photographed him with three of his altars and need to travel and photograph his laboratory altar and his temple room.
As an author of 4 books on the teaching and learning of photography, I intend on publishing my next book on my spiritually focused photography. The book idea has been a passion project that I have had in mind since I started photographing home altars many years ago but have not had the money to do so. I get inquiries all the time from people I’ve photographed, wanting to know if I am going to make a book. Colleagues, artist-friends, and other people around me are very supportive of the idea. Since the book is something that my publisher won’t be interested in, it will most likely be self-published so I’m open to any opportunities for funding.
Connecting with people to photograph, travel, and plans for a book are all pricey prospects. But I’m determined and focused on continuing this work that is so meaningful to me. I intend to make progress with patience, faith, and opportunities that will guide me on this creative path.
It has been a pleasure to share these words and examples of my work with you.
Thank you for this opportunity!
Spirituality has always been the underlying theme and motivation for my photography. Making art is the activity through which I have always looked for answers and sought connection with others and something greater than myself. Throughout my life and art, I have pursued a path that points toward the divine mystery. In 1991, three years after graduating with an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, I was actively looking for someone that could guide me through a transformational process, that would bring me closer to that mystery.
I’d read several books by the Benedictine monk and Christian yogi, Fr. Bede Griffiths. I felt drawn to the wisdom in Griffith’s words about compassion, religious tolerance, and mysticism. They awakened a longing in my heart and I felt compelled to go to his home in India to meet him and learn more from him. In 1993 I wrote to Griffiths and asked for his blessings to visit him in India. Shortly after I posted the letter, I heard that Griffiths was scheduled to attend the 100-year anniversary of the Parliament for the World’s Religions in Chicago. I traveled to the conference with the sole purpose of connecting with Griffiths.
After arriving and settling in at the conference I learned that Griffiths had passed away. Overwhelmed by the news, I met with a group of priests that made the trip from Griffith’s Ashram/Church in India and were mourning his death. Their advice to me was to stay and absorb as many blessings as I could, from as many people as I could over the next 9 days.
All around the conference there was an atmosphere of unity and hope. The spirit of religious and spiritual devotion filled the air. I felt an enveloping sense of joy while in the presence of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Wiccan, Zoroastrian, Muslim, Bahá’í, and Native American spiritual leaders (also others from many other spiritual paths). Being in the presence of those beings had a profound impact on my life and has continued to influence my artwork and spiritual path over the last 28 years.
What is the role of spirituality in your life?
Dewitt Jones once said, “…God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes.”* My spiritual practice nourishes and sustains my artistic practice. My daily spiritual practice consists of prayer, visualizations, offerings, mindfulness meditation, and making photographs. These practices inform my art, which is an offering of love, human connection, and spiritual devotion. Art is an inseparable part of my spiritual practice, which I hope is also received as an offering of beauty. I view my artwork as an exploration and contemplation of religious tolerance, diverse spiritual beliefs, and finding the common threads of hope, faith, and wonder that run throughout all our spiritual practices
The moments fixed in my photos remind me that this spiritual opportunity we have while on the earth is temporary. Our time here is limited and reflecting on this fact motivates me to pursue my spiritual practice ever more deeply.
How has art changed you?
I’ll never forget the sense of awe I felt the first time I saw the original artworks of Caravaggio, Botticelli, da Vinci, and Raphael while I studied art in Italy. Or the overwhelming sense of wonder I felt while surrounded by the sacred artworks in the Vatican. Or what it was like to sense the miraculous when I stood before the ancient, sculpture covered temples and shrines in Kathmandu and Varanasi. I’m grateful to have had these opportunities to open my heart and senses to these miraculous, inspiring wonders! This art has certainly changed me.
American born spiritual teacher, Swami Rudrinanda taught that one could receive some of the creative, spiritual energy needed for inner growth by visualizing and breathing in the radiant spiritual energy emanating from great works of art. He believed that growth toward self-realization could only be achieved by receiving higher levels of divine, transformative energy (blessings) through practices like this. I think the lesson that Rudrinanda was teaching was that being transformed by art is an active in principle, not passive. As for me, I believe I am transformed by art because it is my intention, my desire to be changed.
The more open and receptive I am to art, the more blessings I receive, the more growth I experience in my creative ideas, my awareness of divine influence in art, and my authentic connections to other people. Seeing and being in the presence of masterful art nourishes and energizes my soul. It inspires me to practice my own creative abilities to their fullest capacity in ways that allow me to change, to grow spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally. Looking at art is a catalyst for change (growth), but so is the hard work and resources I put into my photography practice.
My spiritual practice has grown because of my commitment to my photography practice. Art and spirituality each support the other. The creative process provides a multitude of opportunities for me to transform my negative emotions and perceptions, to become more aligned with virtue, generosity, and kindness. Photography helps me to be mindful enough that I can practice kindness and compassion when working with the people I photograph. I am given countless opportunities to strengthen my capacity for acceptance and to be non-judgmental. When the photos are finished, I try to practice generosity when offering prints as gifts to those people I photograph. All these practices remind me to change my thoughts and actions from any immediate negative responses, to actions that are tolerant, accepting, kind, and loving.
Photography is the vehicle I use to transform self-reflective experiences into tangible opportunities through which I can connect outwardly with the world. I exhibit the photos with the hope that viewers will respond with feelings of curiosity, tolerance, acceptance, and love. I feel that over the years, the act of looking at and making art have been important practices that continue to help me cultivate the inner change and growth I need to align my thoughts, feelings, and actions with my spiritual aspirations.
What is the role of art in transformation, both at the personal and at the global level?
As mentioned, art offers two opportunities to contribute to spiritual growth and transformation. The first, and most widely available opportunity on a global and personal level is through the direct experience of works of art. It’s moving to stand in the presence of original artworks that express the artist’s connection with something greater than themselves. I believe that great artworks hold the memories from the artist’s longing as it brought them into existence!
A photograph captures a scene, but also qualities of the photographer’s experience. That said, it doesn’t mean that viewers will receive or understand that experience from the artwork. Each viewer of a photograph will have their own unique experience, partly because their viewing encounter is influenced by their own unique life experience. But if the viewer sets out to connect with the divine spark that brought an artwork into being, they very well may find it!
The work of artists like Rubens, Vermeer, and Dürer offer viewer opportunities to immerse themselves in a transcendent and potentially transformative experience. Photographs by artists like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, John Daido Loori, and Minor White invite the viewer to surrender to an intimate, almost mystical relationship between the observer and the artwork. The viewer need only recognize and be open to an artwork’s transcendent qualities to experience the transformative mysteries that are freely offered.
My participation with a global-level interaction has been through my website, exhibitions, and talks I give around the world. I have spoken at and exhibited my photographs in museums and galleries in India, Europe, Canada, and across the United States. I believe in the capacity for the photos to connect with others, especially when viewers experience the presence of original, large scale prints…all in the contemplative silence of an exhibition space.
And yet the miraculous aspect of this kind of art experience is that viewer doesn’t have to be standing in front of original prints! The invitation is made from every reproduction in a book, a calendar, a copy of a print, or even a reproduction on a computer screen! Anyone with a cell phone and a Google app can experience having their souls touched and be made to feel more whole and joyful from the experience. Art has the potential to bring peace and joy to an individual, while also elevating the entire collective human spirit!
The second role of art in transformation is offered for the artist alone, in the collaborative creation of artwork. I use the word “collaboration” to honor that sensation an artist gets that the making of artwork has been inspired, sustained, and born by a force greater than one’s own limited skill and talent. This kind of blessing influence (which I have experienced) can transform the self-absorbed, egotistic tunnel vision of the artist into feelings of gratitude and humility. Hopefully it can also give some capacity for the work to share these feelings.
Because my own nature is to be self-interested and narcissistic, it took over 20 years for me to recognize the presence of a creative blessing energy and to embrace the positive inner changes that this kind of energy offers. I can only respond now with gratitude and appreciation for all the inspiration and opportunities to share with others through visual art. My heart and soul have been touched by strangers from all over the world because I sought them out or they found me to be photographed. Even apart from the making of artworks, these meetings with others have transformed my negative and hopeless views of humanity into compassion, mindfulness, and hope. It makes me pray that I become more selfless. I pray that actions I take as an artist will ripple out from my works and benefit others as those ripples continue across the global community.
How do you plan to develop your art as it reflects in your ongoing spiritual journey?
Photography brings awareness to my eyes, heart, and soul. It turns my attention to the multifaceted human presentations of devotion, worship, and faith. My work celebrates spiritual diversity while also honoring the unique presentations and qualities of each person’s spiritual practice. Photography highlights all the visual manifestations of the divine mystery and has the capacity to do so in a way that encourages viewers to examine the world more deeply, to respond with curiosity, reverence, and joy. Through these qualities, photography connects me (and hopefully others) to the divine.
There is an entire world of people, spiritual practices, and home altars from which to receive blessings! There are so many places I want to go and people I want to meet and photograph! I feel that the blessings I receive from every altar I photograph inspires me to work harder and go more deeply into my own spiritual practice. I feel elevated by seeing how each person’s altar has been made as a beautiful expression of devotion, love, adoration, and commitment to the higher power with which each person seeks to connect.
I see the people I photograph as role models in many ways. They invite me, a stranger, into their homes to photograph one of their most intimate spaces. Their openness and willingness to be photographed teaches me about the many ways the divine can manifest all around us, even in the strangers we meet! We need only to open our eyes enough to see, with gratitude, the blessings all around us!
What are your thoughts for the new work you want to create?
My plan for future artwork includes travel so I can connect with and photograph a greater diversity of people and their altars. One of the ways I make those connections is through my Instagram account, @daily.altars where people from all over the world submit photos of their home altars. I would like to make more connections with Christian communities since I have very few photos of Christian home altars. I’m building those connections now for possible post-pandemic travels.
An important goal for new artwork is to photograph a man who is a fourth-generation alchemist who uses photography as a central part of his spiritual practice. I find his views on the connections between photography and the “Great Work” fascinating! I have photographed him with three of his altars and need to travel and photograph his laboratory altar and his temple room.
As an author of 4 books on the teaching and learning of photography, I intend on publishing my next book on my spiritually focused photography. The book idea has been a passion project that I have had in mind since I started photographing home altars many years ago but have not had the money to do so. I get inquiries all the time from people I’ve photographed, wanting to know if I am going to make a book. Colleagues, artist-friends, and other people around me are very supportive of the idea. Since the book is something that my publisher won’t be interested in, it will most likely be self-published so I’m open to any opportunities for funding.
Connecting with people to photograph, travel, and plans for a book are all pricey prospects. But I’m determined and focused on continuing this work that is so meaningful to me. I intend to make progress with patience, faith, and opportunities that will guide me on this creative path.
It has been a pleasure to share these words and examples of my work with you.
Thank you for this opportunity!