AN EARTH DAY CREATIVE CELEBRATION: Exploring the overlap between Body and Earth Spirit

ULURU. Red, red rocks. Earth. I love you. (photo by Chiboogamoo)

Hallellujah for MOTHER EARTH! Hallelujah for feeling a profound and deep connection with this mysterious physical breathing changing entity! Hallelujah!

For Earth Day 2014, Carol Clapp Hays asked those of us on The Daily Creative Practice to generate "An Earth Day Creative Celebration." (see the complete prompt below)

Although I love all the natural elements (earth, water, air, and fire)--probably my first and most immediate love is the EARTH. My heart beats red, red, red for the EARTH. Is it because I spent many of my formative years in running barefoot on the red Georgia clay? 

CONNECTION WITH THE POWERFULLY SACRED. I truly believe that ALL of the EARTH is sacred; however, some places have been recognized by people over time to possess a certain heightened energy. At Uluru in 2006 in central Australia, the red red red rocks and the Earth beneath my feet made my SPIRIT SOAR. (photo by Chiboogamoo)

Since my first visit to Australia in 2006, and two other times, my image making has shifted. Fortunate to be married to the paleontologist Tony Martin (my little Chiboogamoo), I was immersed each visit in the geology of this vast and wondrous continent as we investigated the land to understand it better both physically and culturally.

EARTH AND HUMANS. I have always longed to express a deep meaning that resides within that presses to be stated but escapes expression. My feeling, my EARTH BODY hungers for a simple way to speak. Visiting these rock wall expressions centered me. I felt as though I was given permission to enter the discussion. (photo by Chiboogamoo)

How fortunate I am that Tony Martin is also an artist. Like me, he is curious about ideas and formulating ways to communicate them visually. He willingly and happily went with me to find the art that Australia's original people marked on its rock walls. Geology and art collide!

These markings are a part of "dream time" and are maintained by the art makers' descendants to keep the TRUTH or dream-time story living. 

As a maker of marks, I have been exploring my connections with the TRUTH, hence my name--Hallelujah Truth. Part of the TRUTH is finding and understanding my connection to MY COUNTRY (see this blog for more about Sense of Place and some fabulous Australian art). I began by "borrowing" images from these Australian artists to allow myself to repeat patterns that had meaning for me. They altered over time.

MY COUNTRY. I have always longed to be able to express a deeper meaning, one that I feel but cannot express. My feeling, my EARTH BODY hungers for a simple way to speak. Visiting these expressions made on rock walls and ceilings centered me. I felt as though I was given permission to enter the discussion. (photo by Chiboogamoo)

I often repeated the words "my country" as I drew. Dear Readers, I am deeply interested and engaged in that connection...the one between my entire BODY SPIRIT and the EARTH SPIRIT. What images can possibly express that SIMILARITY, that overlapping of BEING?

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! Soul Blog with me and tell how you would respond to Carol Clapp Hays' prompt:

#5 Funday Monday blog prompt--Natural Creative Instincts: An Earth Day Creative Celebration. This week we celebrate Earth Day! How does the natural world influence or inform your creative process? Do you incorporate or reflect your personal natural environment, the every day environment around you, in your creative work? Do you seek creative recharge in the natural world? If so, where do you go in person or even mentally to reconnect with the Earth? Share some examples of your creative expression that reflects or was influenced by your experience of nature. Help connect us to the nature that most influences you. Whether you write a post or not, I hope you'll find as many ways as you can to celebrate our mother Earth this week!