I have recently been looking at the art of Petah Coyne www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag02/june02/coyne/coyne.shtml , Bill Viola http://www.billviola.com/, and Kwang Mo. The first two artists were suggested to me by my advisor as the artists reference their own experiences with the spiritual in their work. I found the Kwang Mo pieces entitled "Ball" at http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/16388/kwang-mo-ball.html(also a suggestion of my advisor). Kwang Mo's piece speaks of interpretations of symbol in various cultures.
In addition to interviews of Bill Viola and Petah Coyne, I have also read "Philosophy of Fine Art" written by the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. This piece by Hegel deals with spirit and nature. He asserts that anything coming from the spirit (art for example) is higher than nature in order. I'll have to admit I had to do a little reading about this piece to understand it. I'm still working on it. It is a very interesting view of nature and religions. He speaks a lot of the Christian view. This is my background so it is particularly interesting to me.
I'm also reading some of Steve Odin's writings as was suggested to me in a critique. Steve Odin is a professor of Philosophy at University of Hawaii. The idea of how culture forms our view of nature is very interesting to me. This is a little of what Steve Odin covers. He has written quite a bit so I'm also still wading through his work.
