Religion is a search for transcendence. But transcendence isn't necessarily sited in an external god which can be a very unspiritual unreligious concept.

We have domesticated God's transcendence. We often learn about God at about the same time as we are learning about Santa Claus but our ideas about Santa Claus change mature and become more nuanced whereas our ideas of God can remain at a rather infantile level.

Painting is the most magical of mediums. The transcendence is truly amazing to me every time I go to a museum and I see how somebody figured another way to rub colored dirt on a flat surface and make space where there is no space or make you think of a life experience.

I was interested in transcendence from a very early age. I was interested in what was over there what was behind life. So when I had my first communion I was very disappointed. I had expected something amazing and surprising and spiritual. Instead all I got was a bicycle. That wasn't what I was after at all.