AstralResearch.Org: Projects-Art-Examples

Projects

Spirit Depiction Art
3. A Reference Collection (go directly to)

In the previous section, I presented a purist and personal view for what is spirit depiction. Here now is a reference collection of spirit depiction art, with known examples from prehistory to modern times, gathered together to help inspire, guide, and encourage your own efforts at spiritual or psychic art. The variety admittedly stretches the credibility of my neat and tidy definitions for what makes spirit depiction art. Such is life - there are lines to be drawn in every subject, for inclusions and exclusions of good examples, but exactly where the lines are to be drawn is a matter of some personal taste. My primary point around spirit depiction art was that it should be an illustration of significant spiritual importance to the artist for not having been "made up", but for portraying as genuinely as possible an actual and remembered non-physical encounter or relationship. This quality will, I claim, lend the work an immediacy of impact which can be felt by spiritually attuned viewers, and this will further open dialogues for the sharing of mystical experience.

Where this definition can break down is in questions like the following. Does spirit depiction art include art that is psychic, clairvoyant, mediumistic, astral/NDE/OBE, or shamanic? Surely! What about dream art, vision art, meditation art, cosmology/astrology art, divination systems? Probably, in parts, when it doesn't get too lost in the symbols. What about hallucination art, drug art, mental disturbance art? Well, maybe when it touches upon a psychic insight. What about mythic art, legend art, prophecy art, temple art? Hmmm, they were probably someone's vision at one time, even if a later illustrator has completed the work of depicting. What about offeratory art, inspirational art, angel art, theology art? Well, if it's not just made up for impact and good looks. What about hypnotherapy art, abductee art, remote viewing art, auric art, police investigation using psychics art? Okay, sure, but that might get pretty dry, disturbing, and/or off the track. What about channeled art, divinely manifested relics art, earth phenomena art, and alternative photography art like kirlian and thoughtography? Oh wow, well sure, if it's spirit depicting itself, but how can we ever really know...

You know, to astral dwellers it is we who are the ghosts. We flicker in and out of their realms, often somnabulently, sometimes to their amusements, sometimes to their consternations. There could be spirits right now getting brief flashes of you, drawing you, calling that spirit art.

We keep getting back to the question of where did this reality begin, this place that the spirit depictionist is depicting? Can it be that everyone draws from a real metaphysics, only some of us see more directly into other realms, thus calling it memory and vision what others would relate to as imagination or intuition? Can we be so sure that a spirit being we are portraying isn't an extension or projection of ourselves, and even if they are, does that make them any less valid to interact with and record in a devotional depiction? Even if the artist does admit to just "making it up", what if their imaging process is so intense that it is telepathically transmitted to someone else who in turn draws the same scene clairvoyantly, would that make any imagined scene potentially a spirit depiction? Would transmission mode alone be enough to qualify? Or are we demanding the spiritual involvement of the artist, is the art supposed to be "from that person's path"?

Will those artists who are primarily spirit depictionists reveal certain shared personality traits? I'm probably being a romantic, but I speculate they might. It seems to me that while the worlds of commercial and fine art are male dominated and elite, the realm of spirit depiction may be outstandingly feminine and egalitarian, a kind of folk art for the sensitive folks. If the spiritual artist is not literally a woman, they might likely be a man whose femininity has been activated in a soulmating relationship which they have faithfully treasured (that would be a nice contrast to the many successful male artists who are infamous for their quantity of lovers and mistreatment of them). I would like to think that spirit depiction is not your usual art activity. I hope that even a small collection of examples will show it to be exceptionally cocreative and vulnerable in ways that femininity values, such as being soul-baringly true, control surrendering, and relationship honoring. But that could also just reveal my agenda and bias.

These and more are reasons for why you may or not agree with the boundaries of inclusion within any gallery of spirit depiction art. I look for some kind of confessed clairvoyance or otherworldly contact, whether developed or since birth, documented preferably firsthand. But I'll also be stopping short of Remote Viewing and Telepathy studies, for example, as being too utilitarian. I hope you'll enjoy the following collection, to find it instructive and worthwhile. Please follow the links to the artists' homepages whenever possible, as many of these individuals are trying to make a living at their craft and deserve a greater patronage.

A note on copyrights: I believe copyrights should always be respected. In presenting here some fully-credited, fairly small, low resolution, representative images on this non-commercial, educational, sincere fan web-site, I claim "fair use" and intend good promotion for the highest purposes in spiritual development. Fair use may be contested, so I'll remove images if I have to. I will also be contacting artists for specific permissions as resources allow. Many of the scans come from the late 20th century Time-Life series Mysteries of the Unknown, whose editors had a knack and budget for researching the rights to obscure visual material. Their efforts are spiritually significant and worth crediting as well; in one lucid/oob dream I was so excited about having ordered a large set of these books in reality from ebay.com (there were 33 originally printed including index, 19 still for sale at timelife.com), that I interrupted a spirit class to show-and-tell all about it. The teacher was patient but had to work creatively to get me to sit down again!

A Reference Collection for Spirit Depiction Art

From historic and religious to contemporary professional, a wide survey intended to inspire, guide, and encourage all aspiring psychic artists. For more examples see the reader submissions, and for the Boston area be sure to check out the successful new Soul Stirring Productions mystical art and talent shows!

ancient paintings