Praying with Art: Image, Symbol, and the Inner Life

Many people discover that words alone are not always enough in prayer. There are seasons when images, colour, movement, and symbol speak more truthfully to what is stirring within us. Praying with art offers a way of listening and responding that engages the whole person — body, imagination, and soul — and can open us to God in unexpectedly gentle and revealing ways.

Art as a Way of Prayer

Art can be a wonderful way of communicating with God beyond words — both listening and responding. It is not about creating masterpieces, but about allowing patterns to emerge that can offer you new insights and be turned into prayer.

Mary Daly understood that it is the creative potential itself in human beings that reflects the image of God. Our creativity springs not primarily from the intellect, but from the play instinct. As Matthew Fox writes:

'Perhaps the time has come when we learn to play with God… as well as pray with God. And in our play… true prayer will emerge.’

When Art Becomes a Teacher

Artwork has the capacity to:

• Show us how we really feel

• Reveal ourselves to ourselves

• Tell us the truth

• Meet the quiet depths of ourselves

• Reveal the gaps in our story — those things we have been unable to express.

Our artwork can be a wise teacher, giving us direction or pointing to what may be blocking us. It often contains messages from the unconscious... that which is ready to be known.

Art can be a powerful tool to use in exploring our spirituality and in spiritual direction work. In my own life, I have known the extraordinary inner wisdom and revelation that can come to me through opening up my depths to expression through symbolic art.

However, most of us can have blocks about using art. We have imbibed messages in our childhood that we were not creative or artistic, that we can't draw and mostly make a mess of it. Many of us feel that our abilities stopped around the age of seven or eight, and that anything we draw now looks child-like.

But the sort of art we are talking about here is not what we explored at school; it has nothing to do with being able to draw or paint beautiful images, but rather is simply about allowing the symbolic to arise and give voice to speak to us. In some ways, child-like images are beautifully playful and easy ways to express our inner world.

Beginning to Pray with Art

Ideas on how you might use art:

Relax, take time to be still, and come home to yourself. Notice what is going on inside you. What do you want from this time? You might begin by asking for light, guidance, or insight, inviting God to be present with you as you start.

After this prayer, simply begin — slowly. Let go of any concern about the end product, and allow your inner self to guide you in the choice of colours, movements, shapes, and materials. Try to work gently and without hurry, trusting what wants to emerge.

You may find yourself drawing or painting your story — your life-line, your inner world, your inscape, your relationship with God, or perhaps images arising from your dreams.

'Working with a blank canvas involves leaping into the unknown, it is not a sure thing but it is a mysterious and wonderful thing. Sometimes a struggle, sometimes a celebration, it can be a way of honestly responding to the pain and beauty of this life's journey.'

— Gillian Lever

As you work:

• Be aware that God is waiting for you as you pray

• Be open to meeting God as you draw/ crayon or paint

• It is the process of painting which is important, not the finished painting

• Try to keep away from images of real things. The only images which you seek are the ones in your mind which arise from the process of painting itself

• Work very slowly so that God can work with you

• Don't rush, keep stopping and looking at what is appearing

• Listen to God and listen to your own heart

• What is the painting asking of you? What does it ask you to do next?

• Let the Holy Spirit inhabit your mind and your painting, and listen to what God is asking of you.

Listening to the Image

Accept your work without analysing or judging it. Look at it carefully and describe it to yourself. Pay attention to details - line, colour, shapes, spaces.

Ask, what are the feelings and thoughts these may reflect? What is your painting saying to you that you can take to prayer? Visual symbols can be messengers, guides and friends. Let the painting tell its own story; take your time to befriend it and learn its language.

Richard Kenton Web, a contemporary painter, had an art exhibition in 2000 entitled, 'The Colour of God.' His words may be helpful to guide you in creating your prayer picture:

'What does wisdom look like? What does it feel like? What does being in the presence of the living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit look like? It is not necessarily seeing or perhaps hearing, but feeling. If we allow colour, shape, size and movement to proclaim our response, then our thought is made visible. making a painting and trusting on such lean ideas pushes you into the realms of faith.'

Art making can be an awakening agent, one that is available to anyone and especially helpful in times of stress. Visual images are an unending source of inner knowledge. The creative act reflects what is inside of us, parts of the self that are more authentically conveyed with images than with words - it is as close as we get to seeing our souls.

It does not require you to produce a finished work of art for a gallery, but does ask you to be authentic, and is called forth by simply being yourself. Your creative source is an authentic reflection of your soul where you can tap into the wisdom of the soul's palette. Your imagination, dreams, visions, and creative urges are the soul's promptings to health and to a rediscovery of who you are and all that you can be.

Further Reading

• Colourful Prayer — Sheila Julian Merryweather

• The Soul’s Palette — Cathy A. Malchiodi