Hallelujah for images that capture the human spirit! Hallelujah for SYMBOLS in these images that provide meaning and courage to each and every one of us. Today, to meet the REVERB10 December 25th CHALLENGE, I have chosen one of the images I made at the beginning of my JOURNEY along the Dinosaur Trail in Queensland, Australia.
This image, “Stepping Out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats,” began in the tropical city of Townsville along the northeastern coast of Australia. Because it was the end of June—winter—the cool comfortable temperatures permitted me to sit out on our modest balcony with a view of the Coral Sea, a cup of coffee, and traveling art supplies.
The night before, we had watched Fruit Bats, or “flying foxes,” drop from their roosting trees and fly into darkness, their heavy mammal bodies lifted by fleshy webby wings. In the morning, noisy mobs of lorikeets had roared by our windows at sunrise. The Townsville environment percolating around me was rich with seen and unseen fauna. From my perch overlooking the sea, I asked myself the following question: “What does my SOUL want to express about BEING here right now?”
“Stepping Out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats” emerged, with me, Hallelujah Truth, entering the world of SEA and AIR. I am not alone in this adventure. Wallaby, my VULNERABILITY, accompanies me. Flying foxes pull me into the UNKNOWN. From the corner of this UNKNOWN, black cockatoos hover under my feet, singing of approaching nurturing rain. Change is at bay. I am being summoned to an ADVENTURE.
Later in the morning, Chiboogamoo and I drove west, leaving the tropical coastal environment and traveling into the Mitchell Grass plains, flat treeless expanses of rolling grass. Each morning along the Dinosaur Trail, I began a drawing/painting reflecting my state of BEING as I studied fossils of living forms preserved from 100 million years ago.
Since I was accompanying a brilliant paleontologist—my husband—but am not one, this ARTFUL REFLECTION expressed in daily drawing/painting is a stimulating tool for maintaining ME, for integrating my art with my husband’s science (read about Townsville in his blog, The Great Cretaceous Walk)! How fun! How stimulating!
Therefore, “Stepping out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats” is an image which reveals what I love most about LIFE. By BEING PRESENT to our SPIRITS, we can make discoveries about ourselves wherever we are—physically or spiritually! Hallelujah! (Here in Georgia, I have returned to work on this painting twice, and I still consider it “not” finished! I see myself revisiting the fruit bats and cockatoos until I feel the image holds the “energy” I need it to.)
SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah! Share your response to the December 25th REVERB10 PROMPT: Photo—a PRESENT to YOURSELF—Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.
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