Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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        Earth as the Original Cathedral
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      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
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      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
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      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
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      Eight Practices for the Journey Within
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      Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
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    • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
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      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
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    • Walk the Ancient Paths: Pilgrimage
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      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
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      • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color
      • The Way of the Hermit:
        A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times
        with Kayleen Asbo, PhD
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers (Lent 2021)
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
    • Self-Study Online Spiritual Retreats
      • Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert:
        An Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
      • Dreaming of the Sea:
        A women’s discernment journey through the story of the Selkie
      • Earth, Our Original Monastery
        A Companion Retreat to the Book (SELF-STUDY)
      • Exile and Coming Home:
        An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
      • Eyes of the Heart:
        Photography as Contemplative Practice
        (Companion retreat to the book)
      • Honoring Saints and Ancestors:
        Online Retreat for the Season of Remembrance
      • Lectio Divina:
        The Sacred Art of Reading the World
      • A Midwinter God:
        Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
      • Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone:
        A Creative Retreat with the Elements (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Seasons:
        A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
      • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
        Eight Practices for the Journey Within
        (a companion retreat to the book)
      • The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (a companion retreat to the book)
      • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire
      • Watershed Moments
        in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
      • Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist:
        A 12-Week Companion Retreat to The Artist's Rule
      • The Wisdom of the Body:
        A 10-Week Online Companion Retreat to the Book
      • The Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine
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Sacred Artist Interview

Sacred Artist Interview: Naomi Teplow

This week's Sacred Artist Interview is with Naomi Teplow.  I first discovered her work while looking for pieces for the Presence journal (I love how this work gives me an excuse to find artists I love and contact them).  She designs Ketubahs (Jewish marriage contracts) and other illuminated manuscripts, so after last week's Abbey Bookshelf you can understand why I love her work so much.  I find Hebrew script to be especially beautiful.  I am grateful to Naomi for participating:

Are you rooted in a particular faith tradition?

I'm a Jewish Israeli from a secular Kibbutz, and though I'm not religious, I celebrate most of the Jewish holidays, especially the Friday night welcoming of the Sabbath. I also don't drive on the Sabbath, but stay home to rest and study. But while my weekly (and yearly) practice is Jewish, my daily practice is actually the Buddhist meditation in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.

What is your primary art medium?

Gouache and ink on paper or parchment (vellum.)

How do you experience the connection between spirituality and creativity?

When it comes to creativity, I don't think I can differentiate between spirituality and non-spirituality (what would that be?) To me, everything informs and colors and motivates creativity. The body and the physical world no less than the spirit and the soul. The senses are just as powerful as ideas and thoughts. Everything I see, hear, smell, think about, feel, and experience, all that I am, which is an undividable whole of spirit and non-spirit, looks for expression, wants to create.

What role does spiritual practice have in your art-making?

My Jewish heritage and my deep connection with the Jewish world, past, present, and even future, determines the subject matter of what I do. My Buddhist practice keeps me sane so I can go about expressing all that Jewish stuff. Also, the Buddhist approach opens my mind and heart to the rest of the world and shows me how interconnected I am with every other phenomenon, and that interconnectedness is very much part of my work.

What sparked your spiritual journey?

I'm not in a journey. I bum around from one thing to the other, picking up whatever is exciting and inspiring, interesting and fun, and whatever keeps my anxieties and depressive tendencies in check.

What sparked your artistic journey?

The need to express myself and the need to make a living.

Do you have a particular process you use when entering into your creative work?

I read a lot, and think, and wait, and hope for ideas and solutions, and try imagining things, and wait some more, and slowly, slowly something emerges.

How does your art-making shape your image of God?

I don't want to shock anybody, but I don't believe in God. I believe in the human need to believe in God. I personally don't need that hypothesis (As Laplace put it) in order to try my best to be good and to express that in a visual or verbal way.

(Art from top to bottom: Shannah-Shinnah, Four Seasons, Jerusalem of Peace, Circle of Time)

Thank you so much to Naomi Teplow and make sure to visit her website.  I especially resonated with her responses about creativity and spirituality.  I appreciate the question of whether we can even have something that is non-spiritual. I love the image of being "an undividable whole of spirit and non-spirit, look(ing) for expression, want(ing) to create." I also valued reflecting on what a non-theistic spirituality looks like and the way that art can be the language between us.

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7 Comments April 23, 2008

Upcoming Programs

The Way of the Hermit:
A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times

January 22-24, 2021
with Kayleen Asbo, PhD

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

Hosted by the Rowe Center
February 1-21, 2021
with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Recent Reflections

  • Hildy Tales 2: Tús maith leath na hoibre – by John Valters Paintner
  • New Book Club for 2021: Lift Every Voice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales One: Dia dhuit, is mise Hildy! by John Valters Paintner, Your Online Prior
  • Celebrate the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle podcast with us!
  • Join us for A Midwinter God & Epiphany! ~ A Love Note from Our Online Abbess

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