Arts can make the transcendent and mystical manifest. Creativity can be a vehicle for connection with the Creator and with fellow humans. Jennifer Elam shares stories from the spiritual journey that began for her in the art studio and Pendle Hill, which led her to unlearn the idea she was not an artist and to go forward sharing Arts and Spirituality among Quakers and beyond by offering lessons and practices for all of us, whether we believe we are artists or not. Art as prayer, as conversation with God, invites the Spirit to be present and opens us to the creative muses. What we receive can be life-changing. Through her stories, we learn that art and creativity can be a spiritual path accessible to all. Included is an eight page color insert of some of the images Jennifer discusses. Directions for making paste papers can be found on the last page

Elam writes about the creative role of the arts in her own spiritual journey, with vignettes about discovering, discerning, and following her leading to develop and share the arts as a spiritual practice. She tells some stories of bringing this art process to others, in jail, at YM, at Pendle Hill, with children. She reflects on the arts as a contemplative process where we listen and connect with the Divine, heal and transform trauma, open to spiritual wisdom and a new life story, and witness to our testimonies and the transcendent. The arts can feed a life of the Spirit, as a spiritual path or discipline, a kind of prayer.
Elam notes that the arts were not an accepted practice among Quakers for centuries, but she writes convincingly in the vein of Dorothea Blom (PHPs 232, 215, 197, 183, 148, and 128) and Fritz Eichenberg (PHPs 257 and 68) about how art can open and connect us to the Spirit, and facilitate our spiritual journeys.
A number of her paintings are reproduced, as well as some art work from children that she worked with. This is a clear and interesting pamphlet about an important topic, that will clarify or reinforce what some people know, or make you want to try it if you don't! ( )