“There is an energy in the creative process that belongs in the league of those energies which can uplift, unify, and harmonize all of us. This energy, which we call ‘making’, is the relating of parts to make a new whole. The result might be a painting, a symphony, a building. If the job is done well, the work of art gives us an experience of wholeness called ecstasy— a moment of rising above our feelings of separateness, competition, divisiveness ‘to a state Of exalted delight in which normal understanding is felt to be surpassed’ (Webster’s)
In a way, the maker (artist) gives us a small taste of that larger art—the new world we are trying to build— a world in which each person, each country, lives in harmonious relationship with each other person and country.
There is a Zen statement, After ecstasy the laundry, which we might reverse to say After much laundry comes a moment of ecstasy. The smaller ecstasies (Arts) keep us nourished so that we have the strength to continue working on the larger art”
Corita Kent
