My wife is in graphic design/illustration. She's been verboten from illustrating children's books as she tends to illustrate everything as creepy or will make political propaganda :D
As for spirituality, I once took a year long bible study course because I thought to myself, "I need to know what all the fuss is about". I played the devils advocate for 12 months and the others in the class loved it. They were very accepting and courteous and appreciated having their beliefs challenged. At the end of the course the Pastor that led it asked me what I thought of Christ? My response was that after studying the bible and the new testament in general, I had concluded that "there are many paths to God (or enlightenment)", not just Christ. She really surprised me with her response, she said "I don't disagree with you, the key is to pick one of the paths". -I think she is right. It's like Mr. Miyagi said, "Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later, get squish just like grape". Choose a path.
I actually really enjoyed listening to the discussions between the guy who auctioned off going to church for a year on ebay and the buying church. It was interesting listening to both sides understand each other better. I'll have to dig that one up at some point.
An FYI, I went to Catholic school too. I spent years in theology classes and left feeling like I knew next to nothing about christianity. I hated theology class and barely passed all of them. I learned a lot by voluntarily partaking in that bible study. What I learned was that the christians (or any religious person) that I liked were the ones that admitted that they didn't know squat but liked the teachings of Christ. The ones that are scary are the ones that have it all figured out and know unequivocally that they are saved and you are damned. Those people (from any religion) are to be feared.
My religion classes in high school were mixed. I really enjoyed class on scripture and social justice while I didn't particularly like sacrament. It more had to do with the teachers than the material in all honesty.