A personal response to Prodigal Daughters by Kenneth Killeen - Steiner teacher and artist

Prodigal Daughters is a rare gem of a book, beautifully written, insightful, poetic, a work of art. Subtitled A New Vision of Spirituality and the Inner Histories of the Arts, Helen Martineau dares to do what very few contemporary art commentators do; she connects the arts back to the original cause, the profound and divine spiritual source, the ‘Hippocrene Spring’.

 

The idea of the spiritual significance and primary spiritual impulse of the arts is as old as art itself. But Helen not only gives us a timely reminder of the truth of the fact that ‘the arts create a bridge between two worlds’, she also brings new insight about the nature of spirit and the redemptive power and purpose of the arts. Creativity is described and explained as essential human activity that helps us understand ourselves and the world.

 

Helen’s insight comes from a lifetime of involvement in practicing and teaching the arts as well as a life devoted to searching for answers to the big questions. She has been assisted in her quest by her own formal and informal studies and her erudite understanding of the work of two great ‘visionaries’, Carl Jung and Rudolf Steiner, as well as her tutelage under the seer Mario Schoenmaker. Yet Prodigal Daughters is not offered as the definitive last word on the arts. Helen invites and encourages us to take her insights as a starting point for our own deepened experience, involvement and understanding of the visual, performing and literary arts.

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‘We live in a material world and I am a material girl’ sang the ironically named pop diva Madonna. Never a truer word was spoken, and maybe not in jest. Materialism has infiltrated all aspects of modern life and human endeavour; education, economics, business, politics, science, religion and the arts. The first and often the only question asked about an artwork is ‘how much is it worth’; precluding any investigation of ‘how and why’, or any search for meaning.  The human spirit has become impoverished. Prodigal Daughters gives us a timely reminder that the true value of art is not monetary, but spiritual in its potential to connect us to each other and the numinous, and inspire, uplift and expand our consciousness.

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Materialism is a myopic focus on the material, physical, sense-perceptible world only. It is also the pursuit of material and worldly things in the hope of fulfilment. Fundamental to materialism is ignorance or denial of the world of spirit. Insightful social commentators decry our slide into materialism, driven by corporate greed, as the root cause of all social ills, misery, despair, violence, chaos, destruction, addictions, superficiality and environmental degradation. Naomi Klein says our current focus should not be on ‘climate change’ but on our life-styles. Rudolf Steiner said that ‘an age of materialism must inevitably summon up an age of wars and devastation’ (The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, 1917).

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Helen offers us her vision of the arts as an antidote, a corrective force to the problems we face. She tells us that although we live in apocalyptic times, let us be aware that the Greek word apokalypsis also means unveiling or revelation. The arts have much to reveal. A genuine artwork unveils what otherwise remains hidden, opens our eyes and ears, minds and hearts. Paul Klee tells us that ‘Art makes the invisible visible’.

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‘Dawkinism’ may be widespread, but so too is the need to know why, the search for meaning, the search for goodness, beauty and truth, the search for spiritual nourishment. The phenomenal rise of Aboriginal art on the world stage is due not only to the extraordinary beauty of the artwork - an aesthetic that connects the ancient with the modern, but also because the collectors are hungry for something authentically spiritual, something powerful, transcendent and connective.

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There are artworks that leave the viewer cold, that are devoid of wondrous beauty and have nothing to offer us beyond the surface. But there is so much extraordinary art out there to explore. Prodigal Daughters encourages us to look deeper, listen more attentively, and think about the arts with our hearts, to experience their transformative power to enable us to become fully human, and fully divine. Written in three parts; the first part describes the complexities of the human organism, evolution and the profound interconnectivity between ‘the arts and us’, our inner being and outer creative pursuits. This is lofty stuff, yet Helen’s writing style is never dense or impenetrable, always readable and lyrical. The second part gives us an ample survey of the various fields of the arts; architecture and sculpture, visual art, music, dance and drama and poetry and literature. We are given a historical overview and keys to unlocking some of the otherwise hidden mysteries of the arts in all their ‘glorious diversity’. The third and final section begins by investigating the creative process and then looks forward to where the arts are headed, how they are now sowing ‘seeds of the future’, and how they can further serve us in advancing as moral and spiritual beings.

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As an artist, Prodigal Daughters encourages me to understand and appreciate the vocation of art making, and makes me want to keep striving to do better art. As an art lover, this book stimulates me to seek out and immerse myself in the rich legacy of human creative endeavour. There is so much more for me to read, listen to and see, to marvel at with all my senses and so enrich my soul and spirit. As an art teacher, Helen’s book provides a unique and invaluable complement to the shelves of far more prosaic books on art. It will give students new insights into art history and unlock new ways of understanding, appreciating and analysing art. I recommend this book most highly to anyone interested in the arts and the human spirit inherent in creating and making, looking and listening. Prodigal Daughters reminds us that good art is cathartic; ‘the ability to create is the essence of our humanity’, p.228 and ‘the specific task of the arts has always been to depict spirit in the world and tell its story,’ p. 223. Prodigal Daughters is a revelation for our apocalyptic times.