There are historical moments when we turn our backs on the divine and suffer for it, but the traditional arts can always serve as a link back.  Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939), who worked before and after the independence of Czechoslovakia in 1918, believed that art serves a spiritual purpose.  Mucha spent much of his early life in France creating commercial art. He became very popular for the style of this work, a style that became known as Art Nouveau. But Mucha wasn’t interested in creating this type of art. He was more interested in creating national and spiritual art. According to AlfonsMucha.org, Mucha “declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more; hence his frustration at the fame he gained through commercial art, when he wanted always to concentrate on more lofty projects that would ennoble art and his birthplace.” It wasn’t long, however, before Mucha got his wish: He returned …