Ministry of Imagination
"Imagination’s truest purpose is not invention, but revelation"
Hello,
Imagination is of double interest to me. I’m Andy Maitland, a practicing artist in the UK who has worked with companies such as Apple, the London Symphony Orchestra, the V&A and I’m a spiritual director in the Christian tradition, trained back in 2002/3/6 with Dr. Larry Crabb in the US.
Of course this is what I do, not who I am and there is more about me as a person a little later and much more interwoven throughout the pages of the Ministry of Imagination. Maybe it’s time I admitted that these words (and pictures) here aren't meant for those living in the fast lane of the attention economy, but for those easing their pace, or for those who by choice or circumstance are being pulled aside, to take in the real world - imaginatively.
What is the Ministry of Imagination?
Art and God have long been dual passions for humans who discover life through imagination: this was my genesis for the Ministry of Imagination, born and named in early 2025, perhaps gestating unseen for some time. Faith, hope and prophecy all require imagination. Here I connect with people in conversations, I write about the Trinity, art, life and imagination on my Substack Journal. As I mentioned, I’m an artist and spiritual director.
As a trained spiritual director, I believe imagination’s truest purpose is not invention, but revelation and humans were made to be filled with nothing less than God Himself. I like how Garret Green puts it:
"Imagination, properly understood as the name of a basic human ability, one of the things that people do in the course of living in, acting on, and thinking about the world identifies that specific point where, according to Christian belief and experience, the Word of God becomes effective in human lives. More formally: imagination is the anthropological point of contact for divine revelation. It is not the "foundation," the "ground," the "preunderstanding," or the "ontological basis" for revelation; it is simply the place where it happens, better, the way in which it happens"
Garret Green
As a spiritual director, through informal video conversations, I accompany new and seasoned believers as they recognise and respond to the Spirit of God in their own lives. The same Spirit who transforms us both. If you would like a conversation, then perhaps read on to learn about my practice here?
As an artist not everything imagined is imaginary. In my latest work, An Imagined Garden, a publication of abstraction iPad drawings, I’m learning to imagine meaningfully. At its most elemental, art is relational and the liberating story about the pandemic birth of An Imagined Garden, a short series, continues - here. I really like Anatole Frances’ ten word celebration of imagination, which in my mind hints back to the purpose of imagination, which is to receive reality:
"To know is nothing at all, to imagine is everything"
Anatole France
As a person I’m married, my wife is a healthcare professional. I’m highly imaginative, creative and a deep thinker. I like people. I have lived abroad. One of my most favourite experiences is four fold, I love a good drink, a good seat, relaxing with my wife and an incredible vista. I like posts and or follow people not because I agree with everything they say, but because I’m interested to hear their thoughts. I dislike hospitals, queuing of any sort and magpies for their culinary tastes. I like magpies as they’re intent observers, Matisse and his cut-outs for his brilliance of imagination and film soundtracks for their atmospheric audio narration.