Wednesday, March 28, 2012

ACN REVISIONING: I AM THE VISCERAL CONNECTION TO THE UNIVERSE--WHO ARE YOU?

I AM THE VISCERAL CONNECTION TO THE UNIVERSE,  ART BY HALLELUJAH TRUTH, VISIONARY ARTIST

HALLELUJAH TRUTH
Greetings DEAR SOJOURNERS! Who are you at this moment as MOTHER EARTH embraces us with HER warm Spring breath—inhaling and exhaling? I am the VISCERAL CONNECTION TO THE UNIVERSE! Hallelujah for being here and experiencing the JOY of our body and soul connection! Hallelujah for the seen and unseen! For that which we can know—and, yes—for that which is unknowable! Hallelujah for the popping, crackling synapses of my brain, the extraordinary electric highway of my spinal cord, my thumping biological heart, and all my moist juicy viscera that make me human. Simultaneously, I sing Hallelujahs for the aspect of my BEINGNESS that plunges me into the GREAT MYSTERY as if I were an Olympic diver of the SPIRIT!

Dear FELLOW PILGRIMS! In Atlanta on March 24 and 25, 2012, we held our annual Artist Conference Network (ACN) weekend (see my blog post about the 2011 ACN weekend)! At this conference meeting, we seasoned ACNer’s renew our VISIONS that empower our creative process and welcome new members into our coaching community. How glorious that we do this SACRED work at the same time the dogwoods, azaleas, and redbuds dance in flourishes of white, pink, and red blossoms and the yellow pollen flows in abundance from the oaks and pines.
ATLANTA FABULOUS 2012. 
KRISTEN ANACKER AND LAURA HAMILTON (Beverly Cassell's niece).  Arriving on Sunday morning at Pine Lake, Georgia, for the second day of the Artist Conference Weekend. Laura drove in from Montgomery, Alabama. 

DISCUSSING QUARTERLY GOAL. Sunday morning, as we were gearing up for the second day of conference coaching and getting caffeine and bagels, Lori Feig Sandoval refined her goal with Kristen.

It was my first experience with Kristen Anacker, Chief Inspirational Officer and member of the ACN Board of Directors. Hailing from California, this energetic costume designer arrived in Atlanta immediately following her presence at the Philadelphia ACN weekend. Her ready laughter, intense listening, and mastery of the conference network structure helped us bring six new CREATIVES into a process where MAGIC happens! All of us learn to step into an arena of “not knowing,” where we learn to take risks, become alive, and give BIRTH to something NEW!


Oh PILGRIMS! How I long for the NEW in my CREATIVE SOJOURN! For the past two years or more, I have been drawing daily images of Hallelujah Truth with her cast of characters. I have been finding myself ready to JOURNEY deeper, wider, and hungering to explore new territories, but I haven’t been certain how to TRAVEL! Sooooooooooo, during this ACN weekend, I asked for a breakthrough in DISCOVERY! Hallelujah! Through a series of questions, this is what I learned about myself relative to my CREATIVE PROCESS (aka, SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMAGE).

HALLELUJAH'S  WALLABY. Among my cast of characters is this precious marsupial which symbolizes my vulnerability. Here he is at the hub of the wheel of my universe (see my blog on this topic)--Hallelujah Truth
In addition to crafting a new VISION of who I am in this world (I AM THE VISCERAL CONNECTION TO THE UNIVERSE) and developing a quarterly goal (one Hallelujah Truth movie, three contacts for developing a refugee art project, and one completed Improv/ESL course with Lesly Fredman), I became enlivened through what ACN calls “breakthrough” coaching. Let me explain my BREAKTHROUGH!
GETTING READY TO COACH FOR A BREAKTHROUGH. This process involves understanding how to talk about our feelings and thoughts in a way that we understand them so that we can "jump" into a new and different way of being, a way of being that allows us to create!
THE MOTHER-IN-LAW STORY. You have to be an ACN member to know how Beverly Cassell, founder of Artist Conference Network, can explain her own experience with her mother-in-law to demonstrate "breakthrough" thinking. Beverly is no longer able to attend ACN weekends, so watch her tell this memorable story on the computer.

I began by reaching for something IMMENSE and BEYOND myself. Searching for this breakthrough, I built matrices with words, concepts of futuristic structures, part-atomic, part-spaceship. As I answered questions, I drew elaborate word pictures. As an artist, I saw a destination that my PILGRIM SELF could JOURNEY to with the greatest effort and commitment; it would require jaw clenching discipline and probably the rest of my life. This breakthrough “appeared” to resonate with my newly minted VISION: I AM VISCERALLY CONNECTED TO THE UNIVERSE! Yet, as I dug deeper into myself through the breakthrough questioning process, I found that the DESTINATION or PATHWAY I was searching for was not in a vastness outside of me, but WITHIN ME.

WITHIN ME, I found PEACE, SERENITY, and ACCEPTANCE. From this place of STILLNESS, I was able to SEE myself differently. I became the DANCING MUSE, an odd breakthrough for one who views herself as bereft of rhythm and with two left feet! Yet this is the MAGIC that the ACN structure creates. Let me explain.

In the past year, the long hours of concentrated drawing, painting, and blogging have left my body aching. This achiness has caused physical suffering, sleepless nights, and trouble moving, all of which impacts the ESSENTIAL ME. I had to CHANGE something in my process that would reconcile my SPIRIT (creative production) with my BODY (the facilitator of my creative production). Through consultation with Lesly Fredman, I had begun to “practice” breathing and dance-like movement prior to the ACN breakthrough coaching!
LEAPING!

Now, I have leapt into BEING the DANCING MUSE! As the DANCING MUSE, I am sure I will continue my SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMAGE united with and supported by my physical self. We will joyfully step our way into the UNKNOWN. I also know that this way of BEING creates MAGIC. For instance, I envision subtle impacts occurring daily. I imagine that now when I walk into a room, the air shifts, molecules bounce slightly faster, and people begin tapping their feet. This impact is the result of being the DANCING MUSE!

As for my drawing, painting, and writing, the DANCING MUSE, is the SOURCE from which the vastness of life radiates outward. I will not need to find my own shaman to give me the cup of ayahuasca. For now, instead, I will find the expanding universe in my head, heart, and gut with peace and serenity. That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and share your vision and breakthroughs. What happens when you walk into a room? Who are you?

HALLELUJAH and KRISTEN

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks to the Artist Conference Network, founded by Beverly Cassell. Thanks to Kristen Anacker, who led our conference weekend. Thanks to the Atlanta Fabulous Artist Conference Network, who provide that essential coaching community for me around the year. Thanks to Lesly Fredman, who is deep, resourceful, and loving. Thanks to the Dancing Flowers for Peace, who have welcomed me to their movement warm-ups on Saturday mornings. Great appreciation to Anne Lynch who helped take photographs of the weekend, especially the ones of me! And as always, I am so pleased and satisfied with the support of my loving Chiboogamoo, who is now cat parenting Sapelo and Tao with me!


SHOWING WORK: ATLANTA FABULOUS ARTIST CONFERENCE WEEKEND MOMENTS


ALICE TEETER

ANNE LYNCH


ELISE HELFER

DONNAR RUTHERFORD

JUDI INGRAM ADKINS

LATOYA SEALS
JACQ MARIE JACK


JUDITH BARBER

KRISTEN ANACKER'S COSTUME WORK
JESSE HARRIS BATHRICK

LESLY HIRVI FREDMAN

MARIA HELENA DOLAN
LORI FEIG SANDOVAL
LAURA HAMILTON
LAURA'S WORK
STELL SIMONTON

RUTH SCHOWALTER'S WORK (AKA HALLELUJAH TRUTH)
KRISTEN ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT HER WORK


WEEKEND SUSTENANCE

WEEKEND COMPLETION




Monday, March 19, 2012

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT: AYAHUASCA VISION OF THE INSECT GOD AND HOW I MET SPIRITUAL PHOTOGRAPHER TY BUTLER

THE INSECT GOD OF THE UNIVERSE (THREE PERCEPTIONS). Perception 1: A poet friend of mine envisioned the Golden Praying Mantis God during an ayahuasca healing experience in the jungles of Ecuador. Perception 2: As I listened to his hallucination, I "saw" my own image of the insect god and had to paint it! Perception 3: Ty Butler imagined how my painting of the poet's vision would glow in Tylight, his patented lighting system for photography!


Hallelujah for OTHERNESS and for the OPPORTUNITY to expand beyond our own BORDERS OF BEING! Sometimes the BORDERS that define who we are as individuals and separates us from everyone else becomes permeable and the OTHERNESS enters our consciousness and travels deep inside, changing and transforming us forever! One way the boundaries can be made transparent is through travel to another country and participating in a ritual with a shaman using a hallucinogen. Boundaries can also be penetrated by us artists as we listen, look, and take in the stories our senses and connections with OTHERS and OTHERNESS bring us. 


PROLOGUE TO MEETING TY BUTLER
My Chiboogamoo and I have a close friendship with a poet who has spent his long life exploring the vast ranges of consciousness with mind altering drugs. Soon after his visit with a shaman deep in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, where he had an ayahuasca vision, we met and he related his experience to us. His envisioning of "THE INSECT GOD," captivated my imagination.


After his session with the shaman and taking the ayahuasca, he returned to his tent.  A plant based infusion, ayahuasca is Quechua for "spirit vine" or "vine of the soul." Our poet friend was overtaken by the "spirit vine" and had the vision of a giant golden praying mantis. This inspirited insect kept repeating to him,"Everything is Going to Be All Right."  My understanding is that the simultaneous beauty of the golden spirit and its threatening  embodiment in an enormous praying mantis produced an uneaseful awe in our poet friend. At home in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the mantra, "Everything is Going to Be All Right" continued to echo in his head. The power of his ayahuasca recollection resulted in my painting bearing the same name as the vision's mantra: "Everything is Going to Be All Right."


MEETING TY BUTLER


Fast forward into the future, post ayahuasca vision, post painting, post painting purchase by poet friend. Now we are dining in the spacious home of our poet friend and my painting, "Everything is Going to Be All Right," informs our presence by the table. I have only just met Ty Butler, who is explaining his sense of "light" and subsequent invention of a lighting system, "Tylight." After Ty's showing us some of his dazzling photographs that also grace the poet's home, he points to my painting, "Everything is Going to Be All Right," and exuberantly proclaims that it would look magnificent in Tylight. The oxygen exits the room! He doesn't know that I painted "Everything is Going to Be All Right"!
FOSSIL SPIRAL. This photo is one of  several by Ty Butler that our poet friend has hanging in his home.


Thus began my acquaintance and deepening friendship with Ty Butler. We started our art-photography connection with him making photographs of "Everything is Going to Be All Right." Then we proceeded to photographing, "Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur." Over time, we have developed a deep friendship with respect for the way we view the world. 


SHARING BOUNDARIES WITH TY BUTLER


Hallelujah for OTHERNESS and the permeability of the borders that only "appear" to keep us separate. Hallelujah for poets drinking ayahuasca and meeting insect gods! Hallelujah for painters, photographers, and poets who go deep into the MYSTERY OF LIFE and return to engage with the physical world and OTHERNESS of those who do not JOURNEY.


PILGRIMS! I adore Ty Butler and his connection with the MYSTERY. How bountiful is BEING when I have the experience of learning about how another SOULMATE sees the LIFE we inhabit! To learn about Ty's quest to observe the "visual essence" of things in this world, read my interview with him.


That's Coffee With Hallelujah. SOUL BLOG with me about your experience of OTHERNESS, your JOURNEYS into the UNKNOWN and back!
EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT...FROM WHOSE PERSPECTIVE? As a  teacher of  English as a second language, I am required to teach verb tenses and the meaning associated with tense as we use it. When we use present perfect (have + past participle), we imply an action started some time in the past and has continued until the present. There is no guarantee that this action will continue into the future. In the instance of this painting, I had fun thinking playing with tenses. The language of the vision was future tense. But think about it...we are never certain that EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT--even if it has been up until this minute! I added simple present and present perfect tenses to begin to erode the prospects of a merry future. Then there was another aspect of this vision I wanted to examine--perspective. If a GIANT GOLDEN PRAYING MANTIS is telling a human, "EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT," how do we know it is a message intended for the well being of the human? Look at this partial image excerpted from my painting. A winged insect is flying into the arms of the praying mantis and most definitely will be consumed. Certainly, this is "all right" for the golden insect god, but for the eaten insect--ah--well too bad!
PRAYING MAN. I hammered this Mexican milagro of a "praying man" (look between the words "all" and "right") onto this painting, having much fun with the word "praying mantis"! Is everything going to be all right? 
VISIONARY PHOTOGRAPHER TY BUTLER LOOKS AT HALLELUJAH'S ART. When I first started drawing every day,  I used micron pens on watercolor paper the size of greeting cards.  My policy was 3 images a day. No erasing. No mistakes. Not good. Not bad. Just is. I completed some of these images by water coloring them. Soon I had numerous small drawings, many of which I sold. Here in this photo Ty took his time one evening looking through various images of mine, some were of mermaids swimming with ammonites whilst on a shopping spree.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Spiritual Art Pilgrim Interview #8: PHOTOGRAPHER TY BUTLER DEEPENS HIS SPIRITUALITY THROUGH THE EXPLORATION OF LIGHT

TY BUTLER MAKING ORDINARY OBJECTS SPIRITUAL.  This photograph resulted from, “An advertising job I had was for the manufacturer of these polishing pads that came in various colors," says Ty Butler.  "The photographs the client had taken before showed no detail in the product.  In general, the more ordinary the product – the more exciting the project was to me and the more surprised the client to see it for the first time.” For me, Hallelujah, this image rockets me into outerspace and into the affirmation that all things are connected. 


Hallelujah for SOUL connection with other SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS! Hallelujah for photographer Ty Butler and his profoundly deep and abiding love for LIGHT. On a warm sunny afternoon in February 2012, Ty surrendered himself to an interview with me, Hallelujah Truth! I have been hungering for years to just sit with Ty and listen to him talk about the way he configures his SOUL through the exploration of LIGHT and PHOTOGRAPHY.
TY BUTLER, SPIRITUAL ART PHOTOGRAPHER

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Give me your personal definition of ART.

TY BUTLER: To me art represents contact with the inner self. It is like the bridge to what I really am that is beyond what I consciously know. It is very close to spirituality although art may deal more with forms, shapes and designs, whatever.

That which you are in touch with is like a clear crystal that has no interpretation, but as it comes through the filters of your life, it takes form and shape. It is very much a direct dial sort of experience that transcends all thought, transcends what you already think you know. And some times, it disrupts what you know—which is very liberating.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Talk to me about what you mean by “disrupt.”

TY BUTLER: I’ve thought before that to live an artist’s life you have the responsibility to disrupt daily patterns of thought and to establish overriding pathways. It is this disruption that takes us out of the muck we are in. No amount of thinking can ever do that.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Are you saying daily patterns of thought are “muck”?

TY BUTLER: I have a great respect for the organized thought patterns of the mind, and I am aware of how important they are in order to live in the world and be in contact with others. However, I don’t think that tape recordings—that which is already known—inspire. I don’t find the known inspirational. I only find inspiration in the unknown as it comes out into the known. This process lifts me, elevates me.
MORE THAN GUMMY BEARS! “In my mind’s eye, I could see the “aura” around the yellow Gummy Bear.  Those on the plastic fork would also reveal their “auras” if they were closer to the plastic plate.”—Ty Butler
ICE TRAY. “Pulling an ice tray out of the freezer I found myself falling into it.  When I select subjects to photograph in TYLIGHT I usually have the same sensation upon looking closely.” —Ty Butler


HALLELUJAH TRUTH: In the past year-and-a-half, you’ve been recovering from a brain injury resulting from a fall from the roof of your house. What have you learned in the past months about patterns—the known, versus creative thought—the unknown?

TY BUTLER: I have had to learn to respect all aspects of life. And that includes respect for the orderly facets of the mind. Channels have been established in our brains to relate to the world. For me, it is really a balancing act between the inspired and what the mind already knows.

That which I am seeking to contact and which results in art can never be had through mimicry or what has been done before. That is my driving force. I don’t understand why anyone wants to do what has been done before. To me, it defeats the purpose of what is the inspirational force that results in art.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is SPIRITUALITY to you?

TY BUTLER: Spirituality to me is the direct contact and experience of the source of ALL. It is direct experience of the infinite.
DIRECT EXPERIENCE WITH THE INFINITE. This photograph is one of my most favorites of Ty’s work.  In response to what he titles, “Lost Work Glove,” I want to weep. It is this connection with something universal and deep that allows him to become engaged with ordinary objects like this work glove. He wrote for this caption, “Amazing the beautiful things one sees while walking the dog.”

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is the connection between the ART you make and your spirituality?

TY BUTLER: The more pure the inner contact is, the more powerful the resulting art will be. For me, the connection between my spirituality and photography is inner contact without conscious thought. That’s a real hard thing to achieve in photography because photography is technical on so many levels. The way I do it is to keep my attention on the light itself rather than the subjects it falls upon. It is hard to answer when people ask me, “What subjects do you like to shoot?” Because for me, it is the experience with light that matters.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is it about light?

TY BUTLER: For me, light and spirituality are the same thing. Now, the concept of “art” is tricky. In the art world, there are many expected and respected formats. Those come into play in terms of selling art. I am not really concerned if my art is printed on this paper or has this amount of longevity—those are marketing considerations, more like after thoughts. I’m interested in the direct experience of art.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Can you give me an example?

TY BUTLER: I can tell you that the greatest teacher that I’ve had in my life would be recognized by very few people as being an artist. I worked in a transformer factory, one that made overhead transformers like the ones on telephone poles that are filled with oil. His name was Don Smith. This was back when I was just getting out of college that I met and worked with this man. At his workstation, he tied together the wires and components that made the transformer inside, and he did it with little strips of white cloth. He could have tied any old knot, but he tied the most perfect little bows with these pieces of white cloth and when he finished his job, the transformer was beautiful because of his loving touch. In the next station, the entire inner assembly was submerged into a tank of oil, and no one ever saw it again. He never looked beyond the station where he worked, and he always tied the white bows perfectly.

That is what he taught me about art—the direct experience of making it.
“THE POSSIBILITIES THERE ARE ENDLESS,” Ty expresses about this piece that he entitled: Hairbrush and Scarf--compliments of the Dollar Store Prop House.


HALLELUJAH TRUTH:  In what way does your ART enhance your SPIRITUALITY?

TY BUTLER: (Chuckling)…Well…through inner contact with the great unknown, the awareness of my spirituality grows. It’s what I am all ready, but I am waking up to what is there and strengthening my contact with it. 

I have never been able to understand why someone can be such a great artist and at the same time apparently be a bad person. I don’t understand how that works. It seems like strong creative contact would lead to good deeds in life. I don’t understand why that isn’t necessarily the case because spirituality has its own morality.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Has SPIRITUALITY always been a source of your ARTMAKING?  Why? If not, when did the SPIRITUALITY emerge?

TY BUTLER: The love of light came first. Light represented a way to keep in mind the infinite on a daily basis. I saw what light reflects on and not light itself. I don’t think one can see light itself. Instead, we see light bouncing and reflecting off the surfaces of everything that makes up the visual world—light reflections.

Photography was a way to pay for my meditative experience.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: When did you start doing photography that was connected to your spirituality?

TY BUTLER: In college. The best training that a photographer can get is the observation of light in as many circumstances as possible. So the early part of my development was seeing light reflection and shadow in many different circumstances. I didn’t think that I knew what anything looked like. Any one thing could be experienced in so many different lighting situations that I felt kind of ignorant of reality.

So the quest became to see if there was a “visual essence” in everything around us. And my work with photography has really been the attempt to capture this “essence” and share it with others. That is why I kept on being a photographer—it is my desire to do that.

Of course, I have never seen the “visual essence” but I have gotten a whole lot closer than I would have otherwise.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Define “visual essence”….

TY BUTLER: Visual essence is a self-emanating light coming from objects. These objects are their own illumination. In my photographs, this is the look I am trying to capture. There are some certain states of mind and ways of seeing where you can glimpse such “things.”
VISUAL ESSENCE OF ICE. Ty created this photo, Bourbon on the Rocks, for the cover of Emory University’s Science Magazine that contained an article on the effects of alcohol in young people.
PARTY STRAWS. “Things appeal to kids for a reason.” –Ty Butler    



HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is your purpose for making ART?

TY BUTLER: For me the art I make is a by-product of the inner contact.Part of the reason I came back is to share the reality of how each and everything around us is a piece of art.  (Ty is referring to his recovery from the accident he had in November 2010. During his lengthy recovery from falling from the roof, he was placed in a doctor-induced coma so that his brain could heal. There were times that he wasn’t expected to survive.)

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Long before your accident, you had photographed numerous every day objects to reveal them through “TYLIGHT,” the lighting system you designed and patented.

TY BUTLER: Yes, for example, once, I went to the junkyard and got twenty or so pieces of junk in different shapes and configurations. I was completely overwhelmed the rest of the day after I got back. I looked at the pieces in TYLIGHT and each thing was its own “art.”

This “art,” which is inherent in everything, is something we don’t normally see, but I could see “art” in each thing sitting there.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: And you want to make a distinction between the “art” inherent in everything—its “essence”—and the piece of art which is valued for its obeisance to the rules of composition imposed by the academy?

TY BUTLER:  Yes, if I wanted to make one of these photos of junk into a piece of “art,” I would have to crop it and be concerned about the various rules of composition.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Your career in advertising began in 1978, and you had been doing commercial photography for more than 30 years up until your accident…is that right?

TY BUTLER: My career as a commercial photographer has been an excuse to support my investigation of light. By fulfilling my responsibilities to my clients, I developed a new lighting system. It took me three years to design and build, and I patented Tylight in 1991.
ON THE BRIDGE OF TYLIGHT. Ty Butler poses on top of the photographic lighting system he invented, built, and patented. He was told that his ideas wouldn't work! He followed his intuition anyway and succeeded!

The purpose of TYLIGHT is to give things the appearance of being self-illuminated. Although the light is not coming from within the object, it is a way of showing what its true visual nature is.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: And now, you are retired from commercial advertising, can you tell me more about the SPIRITUAL “purpose” of your coming back from your brain injury? How does ART figure in?

TY BUTLER: On November 7, 2010, the day I fell, is the day I stopped trying to find my place in photography and in art. I had 33 years of programming of having a purpose for everything.

Now, my photography doesn’t necessarily need a purpose. When I became interested in photography when I was 14, I didn’t care about showing anybody my pictures. I was so involved in making the photographs. In college my photographs stayed in a box under my bed. I wasn’t interested in showing them because it was the process of taking them that mattered to me.

When I was building TYLIGHT, it took three years to build because I only worked on it when I was intuitively guided--never when I was in conscious thought.

I was told by others that TYLIGHT wasn’t going to work. It just wasn’t the way lighting should be done. So I kept TYLIGHT hidden and followed my intuition. All those years, I had faith in what was going to happen, but I didn’t have any tangible proof of what the result would be. It was only after hundreds of hours of construction and I had completed the invention, that I thought about how TYLIGHT could be used in business.

I built TYLIGHT out of personal philosophical curiosity and a drive to see something real. I would never have done it if I had had to produce a certain kind of result.

Instead, I wanted to see and share my sense of discovery, amazement and respect for the world around me and how far it is from the stereotypes of what is thought to be beautiful and what isn’t.
TOILET TISSUE. At the grocery store, looking at a roll and thinking “This is beautiful.”—Ty Butler


HOME DEPOT PLANT CHAIN. In TYLIGHT, ordinary brass becomes glowing gold that illuminates the surface around it.  Someone approached me after seeing this photograph and asked me to shoot his gold plated jewelry. Knowing his intention, I refused, partially because of the inspirational way TYLIGHT came to me in meditation, I always observed strict rules on how it was used. –Ty Butler

SWISS CHARD. When I looked into our refrigerator, I saw this photograph looking down from space.  The frowning face was something revealed in TYLIGHT. In that world, faces are seen everywhere.—Ty Butler


HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Any concluding remarks?

TY BUTLER: For me, spirituality has its own interior guidance for one’s life.  It has its own morality. I don’t need books or somebody else to tell me how I should live. The stronger my spiritual contact the better and happier my life will be.
BUTTON ON BLUE. I brought home my mom’s button collection after she passed.  No wonder she loved these things.  This one is about an inch in diameter. —Ty Butler


SHARED APPRECIATION FOR OTHERNESS.  Hallelujah Truth, me--visionary artist, embraces  soul mate  Ty Butler, visionary photographer. The occasion for this photograph was significant! A group of friends celebrated Ty's sixtieth birthday in the of summer 2011. Even more importantly, we enthusiastically welcomed his return to life after a traumatic fall from the roof of his house in November 2010 and near death experience in the months following. Ty says he returned for a reason! Hallelujah! (See my blog entry on how I met Ty Butler.)

BIRD FOOTPRINTS. My pet cockatiel walked across the sand and then did a little dance.  It happened on the first attempt. —Ty Butler

A NOTE FROM TY BUTLER REGARDING THE IMAGES YOU SEE ON THE BLOG POST HERE: The appearance of the following subjects do not result from computer enhancement but are natural results of illumination in the TYLIGHT Lighting Invention.  After finishing the invention, my overwhelming dilemma was not “what to” photograph but what “not to” photograph. Our world is a place of wonderful beauty.  It is literally everywhere we choose to see.


VISIT OTHER SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS IN HALLELUJAH TRUTH’S INTERVIEWS!

1. Cecelia Kane (painter, drawer, performance art)

2. Robey Tapp (book sculptor, collagist, painter)

3. Karen Phillips (painter)

4. Carol Ruckdeschel (naturalist, painter, drawer)

5. Flora Rosefsky (drawer, painter, collagist)

6. Jesse Bathrick (in progress)

7. Kenny Whitfield (Bahamian Wood Carver)