Sometimes, in the middle of the night, when my mind is in that whispy state between drowsiness and wakefulness, great, profound and important thoughts occur to me. Unless I write them down they disappear like clouds in the sky, to be wondered at one minute, gone the next.

Usually when I read what I have written, what once seemed so vital appears trite and trivial when looked at again in the morning.

A couple of nights ago I had some thoughts on the spiritual nature of the practice of art. Now there’s a subject pregnant with profundity! Why I was musing on such things when I should have been sleeping and dreaming lovely dreams I cannot say.

The thoughts that occurred to me required recording, so I thought in my 3am state of stupor, and so I set them down.

‘Fundamentalists of all faiths distrust art and often ban it. Christian Puritans, Islamic Salafi, Ultra Orthodox Jews… all teach in their own way that art is anathema and that all truth has been revealed directly by God. Art has nothing to add or say. God provides all the answers and a complete framework for living. Nothing is open for exploration and discovery. The human lot is to submit and obey.

The art of the political extremes is not dissimilar. It asks no questions and exists only to propagandise and glorify the leader or ideology.

Yet art surely is a dialogue with God - or at least one's spiritual side. It is a process of discovery and great art inhabits that space between life and death and is made up of both. Art discovers and exposes both beauty and ugliness. It asks the awkward questions. Art explores paradox and contradiction. The execution and practice can be prayerful and meditative.

Much recent, secular, contemporary art has consciously denied God. It is entirely human and urban centred. It is only interested in human trivia and minutiae and the artists involved produce pointless work that can only be explained and justified with the aid of contorted and strangulated jargon. Many contemporary art movements have been inward-looking and insulated, powered and justified by a delusory market funded by super rich.’

I must think about that a bit more now that I am awake. I couldn’t have been that dosey when I wrote it!