Mixing Art and Ritual

I’ve always seen a convergence between what people do and have done with their spiritual practice as pagans and what artists do making art. It’s funny, I’ve met people that would swear up and down they weren’t creative at all, and yet they would have a gorgeous altar or ritual room or write invocations or poetry to honor their higher power. Some of these “non creative people” would just bust it out in a drum circle either by playing an instrument that someone handed to them or they would just let go and dance, or even sing. These folks that would not call themselves artists are in these moments are doing exactly that. Making art in the beginning is sometimes about learning technique, how to draw, how to work with clay, how to play an instrument. What is really important is getting to the point where you let go of fear and self judgment, and just express yourself. Submit to the experience you’re having, open yourself up to what is coming to you, and dare to honor that (whatever -that- is) in the way that seems right to you.

I wanted to show you some examples of art and artists who kind of cross that middle line of art and ritual, maybe give you some ideas…

Feminist artists in the 60′s & 70′s made a lot interesting work that still affects our culture today. For example check out Carolees Chneemann. Her work focuses much on taboos, our relationship with our bodies, especially how we view and judge the female, sexual expression & liberation, and the the relationship with the Divine. The kind of art she makes is a mixture of film, performance, and instillation. She’s best known for her performance ‘Interior Scroll‘ (nsfw) where she stood on a pedestal nude & ritualistically covered herself in mud until she removed a scroll from her vagina and read a poem. At the time that kind of work was strictly taboo even more than something like that would be today. Carolees Chneemann‘s work was and is groundbreaking, it’s worth taking a look and if you have a chance to see her work in person go do so. Other artists who did similar groundbreaking work that you might want to look into are Judy Chicago, Lorraine O’Grady, Mary Beth Edelson, & check out the documentary Goddess Remembered. It’s more about spirituality than art, but you’ll see them mix a little. I think if these women on both sides didn’t do the work they did in the 60′s and 70′s our culture would look very different today and be much poorer for it.

But it’s not just the ladies who were and are crossing the lines between spirituality and art. Most people are familiar with Alex Grey’s paintings (if you’re not go check them out), but in the early part of his career he did several performances that walked that line between art and ritual (also on his website). He continues his work exploring art, creativity, consciousness, energy, and mysticism at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors retreat in New York, and he also travels the country painting live and performing. Similar artists to check out are Luke Brown, Robert Venosa, and Amanda Sage. There are of course many more artists I could list, and many more ways in which artists and pagans have explored creativity and ritual, as time goes on I’ll cover a few in depth.

There’s a great clip I found from the documentary The Mindscape of Alan Moore, which chronicles his life and work as a writer. He authored  the graphic novels V for Vendetta, The Watchmen, From Hell, and others.

That’s one point of view among many. I don’t want to give you answers, I’m just giving you stuff to think about.