Art: a thin place
The divine and the mortal are fused together in the thinness of what the mystics and Celtic Christians refer to as the thin place. This is a place where connection to the Divine seems effortless, and ephemeral signs of its existence are deep. These places captivate oneself. As expressed by Ghandi in his Spiritual Message to the World in 1931,
“There is an indefinable, mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power that makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses.”
There is a mysterious power in the world that, as expressed by Ghandi, pervades all things. The inherent holiness of the world is Divinely transcendent and permeates our soul when we allow ourselves to pause. It is easy to miss and is something that can only be experienced in the quiet of life. And when it is experienced, it’s as if the space between heaven and earth becomes thin and you are transported into the sacred—if only for a moment.
Thin places are charged with sacredness and feel close to God. Whether a mountaintop or seaside cliff, a walk through the woods, a sunrise or sunset, or even a simple everyday moment, thin places are wherever you have a sense of the Divine; a sense beyond. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and earth is lifted and one is able to receive a glimpse of the glory of God. The contemporary poet, Sharlande Sledge, gives this wonderful description:
“Thin places,” the Celts call this space,
Both seen and unseen,
Where the door between the world
And the next is cracked open for a moment
And the light is not all on the other side.
God shaped space. Holy.
Thin places are about connection with God and the divine...like a crack in the door. They are ports in the storm of life, where wanderers can move closer to God and leave that which is familiar to journey into the Divine presence. They are stopping places where we are given pause to wonder about what lies beyond the mundane, the grief, the trials, and the boredom of our day-to-day life. They probe to the core of our human heart and open the pathway that leads to satisfying the familiar hungers and ceaseless longings of our souls: connection, peace, and love.
Like a thin place, art transports us to a place beyond the everyday. It recognizes that the world is not as it should be. It is simultaneously a witness of our fractured world and a hope for its redemption. By its very nature, art is existential and prayerful and can carry both the artist and the viewer into the presence of God. Art goes beyond the visual and can invite healing into the world. The aesthetics overcome our senses and the Divine speaks. The Russian born poet Joseph Brodesky says this elegantly,
“Art is a form of resistance to the imperfections of reality as well as an attempt to create an alternative reality, an alternative that one hopes will possess the hallmarks of a conceivable, if not an achievable, perfection.”
The nature of art is to express, through the material, the things of life which are often intangible. Art does not offer the solution within itself, but rather, points us in a new direction. It requires a response from us to open the door of contemplation and access deeper awareness of our existence and spirituality. It is here, in this very action, where the presence of the Divine can emerge and transcend closer to earth in what is called the thin place.
When thinking about my art and this old teaching of the Celtic Christian faith, I cannot help but desire my art to be a manifestation of all I have written above. I desire for what I create to capture the space between heaven and earth—something between ethereal and material—and to evoke a space where the presence of God is felt. Abstraction makes this experience even more successful. Its non-representation allows for a pure emotional exchange between me and you. It allows us to find common ground. It is through the material world—and its creativity—where we come into contact with each other and move towards a true fulfillment of our spiritual needs. We may not walk away with our problems solved immediately, but we will walk away with a certain kind of refreshment that is made manifest through the thin place of art—the presence of God.
Resources/Citations:
Sharlande Sledge, “Thin Places.”
Ghandi, Mahatma. "Spiritual Message to the World 1931." Speech.
Christ Across the Disciplines: Past, Present, Future., esp. chapter 7, p. 165, 180-181.
God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art, p. 30.
Photo taken by Ryan McDonald in the studio, November 2021