LIFE OF THE CREATIVE SPIRIT: PERSISTENT CHANGE LIKE THE SEASONS

TUMBLING IN THE SEASONS OF CHANGE. ( Wandjina Art and photos by Hallelujah Truth, creative mind and spirit dedicated to creativity!)

Hallelujah for the PRACTICE! Fifteen minutes of CREATIVITY every day! Hallelujah for the seasons that bring CHANGE. I believe in PERSISTENCE, REPETITION, and NONJUDGMENT—not good, not bad, just is! Right now, the persistent green leaves of a long hot summer here in Atlanta, Georgia, are transforming themselves into reds, yellows, and oranges before leaping off their trees! My daily image making possesses similar transformations. Let me speak about my ARTISTIC process at the CHANGE of seasons as temperatures here in the southeastern part of the United States soar dramatically from the high 60’s (Fahrenheit) to close to freezing temperatures at night.

WANDJINA DRAWING DAY 1,  OCTOBER 28, 2011

On this first day of November, I have completed the fifth daily drawing of a solo Wandjina, the northwestern Australian Aboriginal CREATION GOD. I explained in a previous blog that I have allowed this CREATION GOD to represent an aspect of my psyche that is associated with the masculine qualities of assertiveness, action, and logic. Generally, in my morning drawings, I draw Wandjina only after I have rendered Hallelujah Truth, representing my creative feminine self. Five days ago, after I had been drawing for 27 continuous days in black micron pens sans color, I felt an INTENSE NEED to do SOMETHING DIFFERENT, and Wandjina asked to be drawn in watercolor pencils!

DAILY MICRON DRAWINGS October 23, 2011. Hallelujah with cat companion and parts of her psyche! Wandjina stands on her shoulder on the right.

Hallelujah Truth (me the blog writer) has been PRESENT to my FEELINGS, and CHANGE is pressing against my breast and rumbling in my stomach. I don’t know what is NEXT! So dear FELLOW PILGRIMS, I repeat, repeat, and repeat. I meditate as I RECREATE the familiar. I focus on BEING and not judging. I yearn for SURPRISE. I wait, breathing in and out, conscious of my body as I draw.  Inhaling at the rate of a slow metronome, I patiently wait for DISCOVERY and am ready when it visits me!

WANDJINA DRAWING DAY 2,  OCTOBER 29, 2011

WANDJINA DRAWING DAY 3,  OCTOBER 30, 2011

WANDJINA DRAWING DAY 4,  OCTOBER 31, 2011

WANDJINA DRAWING DAY 5,  November 1, 2011

At this moment, the day after HALLOWEEN, I am struck by how much my Wandjina look like the skeletons I have seen gracing my Decatur neighbors’ doors and hanging from their trees along with other ghoulish creatures of witches, aliens, and jack-o-lanterns. How is that the image of a CREATION GOD’S head looks like the skeletal remains of a human skull? Wow! From DEATH comes LIFE and more!

THE CUTTING EDGE OF CHANGE: Decatur Halloween Skeleton 2011. Notice the similarity to Wandjina's face?

GAMBLING? What do skeletons have to lose gambling their lives away? How about you? Changing seasons give us pause to consider the transience of our lives. What do you want to do with your life before you become food for the worms? (Decatur, Georgia, Halloween 2011)

For me, HALLOWEEN seems to be a boundary day on which we the LIVING flirt with the DEAD—those who have lived. Bravely and in the name of FUN, we dress in costumes (disguises) and go out in the darkness to meet other SPIRITS! We do this at the end of the fertile summer and its HARVEST and on the verge of winter and its DEATH. Hallelujah for the CYCLES of LIFE! The green leaves cycle into brown after being a vibrant orange, yellow, or red, turning into mulch from which new things will grow. We humans die, leaving skeletons, remnants of what we once were. Wandjina creates life while emerging from rituals performed thousands of years ago in one of the oldest human cultures. What is HUMAN? What is SPIRIT? What is DEATH? What is BIRTH? What is CREATIVITY?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do know that by establishing a practice of “doing the work” of the SOUL, that I am on the JOURNEY, one which is rewarding and filled with CHANGE! That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me SOJOURNERS! Tell me how your SPIRIT is processing the CHANGE of seasons? What is happening in your CYCLE of LIFE right now?

THE TREASURE. My spiritual art journey provides a richness beyond measure. I am living the reflective life, which allows me to enlarge my SPIRIT! Hallelujah! (Decatur, Georgia, Halloween 2011)

HALLELUJAH EMBRACING CHANGE. The rituals practiced during Halloween invite all of us to contemplate body, mind, and SPIRIT. We are changing all the time, just like the seasons.(Decatur, Georgia, Halloween 2011, photo by Alice Teeter)

SURPRISE AWAITS US! If we look close enough at what surrounds us,  our perception opens and we see fairy wings with ferns on skeletons! Have fun thinking of REBIRTH here! (Decatur, Georgia, Halloween 2011)