Spiritual art is an ambiguous term that can mean anything from art based on an established religion, abstract works that rely on a theory of 'natural' spirituality, to Romantic figurative works from 'super-hero' aesthetics. As in the case of all art, what a piece of art portrays is the personality of the artist and his/her spiritual depth. Spirituality begins with a personal encounter with the reality of one's own death. If there is no visceral encounter with death then the artist is only illustrating some religious or secular ideology about the spiritual. The spiritual is the non-material existence that exists after death but seems to be the force that invades our mortal life. Of course there is no proof that a spiritual world exists other than what we perceive to be spiritual. I have found that some artists have been able to take the images of their religion's mythology and encounter the frontier of death/life but most artists that use their religious mythology only produce propaganda and kitsch. The abstracted art that is said to be spiritual are based on the spirituality that arose out of the late 19th and early 20 centuries and owe as debt to R. Steiner and H. Blavatsky. Many of the art works that say they come out of this type of non-sectarian 'natural' spirituality are little more than wall paper because the artist has not viscerally encountered death through his/her art. Again what is expressed is the artist's soul/personality. Spiritual art should take a 'prepared audience' to the encounter with death. In this case there will be either of two experiences. The artist and the audience will either experience a feeling of mystery and presence or a feeling of non-presence and the eternal void.
