I AM HOT MAGMA MAKING MANNA: AN ARTIST CONFERENCE NETWORK ASSISTED VISION

I AM HOT MAGMA! art by Hallelujah Truth

Hallelujah for the Artist Conference Network (ACN)—a coaching community for ARTISTS! Hallelujah for a shared language for going deeper into the CREATIVE PROCESS and a method to JOURNEY into BEING and ACTION based on NOTHING!

If it sounds like I’m talking in CODE, I am! You see FELLOW PILGRIMS, in my CREATIVE SOJOURN I have found a way of communicating with writers, singers, performers, musicians, and visual artists who have agreed to SPEAK about their work following generous yet prescribed ACN guidelines, a way that does not interfere with each INDIVIDUAL ART PILGRIM’S VISION.

You might ask what I mean by VISION….You would have to belong to the Artist Conference Network (ACN), to truly understand the way I am using this term, but I will tell you joyfully and courageously that the VISION I arrived at from Atlanta’s ACN annual weekend that just took place April 16 to 17 in the club house of Pine Lake, Georgia, moves me forward into my ARTISTIC JOURNEY—I AM HOT MAGMA, MAKING MANNA.

Yes, I AM HOT MAGMA! The driving force that fuels my creative work is the “hot lava” inside me waiting to erupt and create new territories. This magnificent magma is molten and throbbing waiting to be formed, to be named, to be given voice, and to be heard.  I work as an ARTIST to translate this exciting source of vibrant life that is TRUTH, is HALLELUJAH, is RUTH TRUTH and all the incarnations I have ever been. First the MAGMA, then the visual images!

A quote of Martha Graham’s that we read frequently at ACN meetings reinforces the importance of SPEAKING in the unique voice that is ours alone:

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

Yes there is that LIFE FORCE! Thank you Martha Graham! Yes! And the other part of my vision statement is—I MAKE MANNA! As an ARTIST, I CREATE food for my SOUL through the “process” of drawing and painting. Amazingly, I simultaneously feed other SOULS—because none of us, not one of us is ALONE! Friends, family members and SOUL BLOGGERS have let me know I have given them something through my LIFE as an ARTIST!  Thank you! And I know that the work of each and every PILGRIM impacts us ALL. My MANNA is your MANNA and vice-versa!

In addition to ART being SOUL FOOD nurturing our spirits, I believe ART is MEDICINE healing us at the most basic level of our BEING. What do you think FELLOW PILGRIMS? SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah and tell me what your VISION is. What drives your CREATIVE WORK?

The Atlanta Artist Conference Network with Jean Anderson (front left) April 17, 2011 (photo by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I wish to thank Beverly Cassell, Founder of the Artist Conference Network, who I met at my first ACN weekend in 2002. In recent years, I have appreciated the coaching leadership from three members of ACN’s current board of Directors: Jean Anderson, Lynne Prather, and Marianne Connor. In addition, I am so thankful my own local ACN leaders: Lesly Fredman, Donna Rutherford, and Alice Teeter. It is with pleasure at the beginning ACN goal setting year, that I join the leadership team here in Atlanta! I look forward to working with ALL our members. Hallelujah! I’ll be blogging about ACN in future entries at COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH! SOUL BLOG back!

Work in progress, a future puppet for World Laughter Day, May 1, 2011 in downtown Decatur, Georgia, brought to us by Jean Woodall!

Arriving Sunday morning to show work 

Showing work and Getting Coached

Donna Rutherford emerged as a top secret character to introduce her upcoming book

Dana Kemp showing her most recent body of photographs

Engaged in Coaching

 Some Smiling members of the Atlanta Fabulous Artist Conference Network on day two of the Artist Conference Weekend, April 17, 2011