Tuesday, August 19, 2014

WCAGA DRAW 4 DAYS (Day #2): Beginnings of the fabulous marathon touching my wild woman soul

DRAWING ON TOP OF THE CRETACEOUS. (art by Hallelujah Truth)
Hallelujah for WCAGA! Hallelujah for Further Polycontemporary! Hallelujah for the drawing the SOUL! 

As many of you know, I am Hallelujah Truth, and I consider you, my reader, as fellow pilgrims on the most amazing journey--the cultivation of our BEINGS. I am filled with such gratitude to have the opportunity to be in the company of talented and energetic women in a drawing marathon here in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 

Take a look at just some of the colorful and imaginative beginnings of the drawing marathon: 
 
Drawing in amongst these WCAGA members, I ask myself that persistent question: WHO AM I?
DRAWING ON TOP OF THE CRETACEOUS 2. Here I am drawing on top of a print out of a photo that my Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) took of a Cretaceous outcrop of invertebrate burrows. (photo by Callahan Pope McDonough)
This question leads me to another universal question: DO I UNDERSTAND MYSELF BETTER IN COMPARING MYSELF TO OTHERS? In this case, what my drawing "is" or "isn't" in relation to these other artists?

I return to the mantra I collected from Natalie Goldberg, "Not good. Not bad. Just is." My art making is my PRACTICE, my lifestyle, my way to anchor myself to this world from my center, my gut. 
DRAWING ON TOP OF THE CRETACEOUS 3. Here is another drawing on top of a print out of a photo that my Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) took of a Cretaceous outcrop of invertebrate burrows. This time, I have drawn Wandjina and Mother Snake on the substrate. I delighted in the presence of the centimeter scale in the way that it invites measurement of physical space. And I want to also invite the question of deep geological time and the layers of stories that accrue in our individual and collective psyches. (art by Hallelujah Truth)
My work feels visceral. At times, my artmaking feels STUCK. So I repeat. Repeat. And repeat again. An artist came up to my table on the first morning of "Draw 4 Days," looked at my work, and announced, "You've done that before. I've seen it." 

I gulped. I felt shamed, and then I realized that we are all working with our own definitions of WHAT ART IS and WHAT DRAWING IS. New, old, artful, pretty, ugly, devoid of colorbook lines...? Great questions!
 
DRAWING ON TOP OF THE CRETACEOUS 3. Another photo that my Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) took of the Montana Cretaceous badlands. I'm in the photo for scale in a post lunch stupor. At the same time, my SOUL is awake and playing. Psychological soul time meets geologic timeI. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

I have continued my love affair with Clarissa Pinkola Estes and am now reading her first book, Women Who Run with the Wolves.  This Jungian analyst and cantadora calls the relationship we have with the soul, the "wild woman," "the river beneath the river," "the light from the abyss," or the "wolf woman."

Well as I prepare to leave for the second day of "Draw 4 Days," I invite the "wild woman" to be present today so that I can sing my song out in the lines that I am called to make. 
 
DRAWING ON TOP OF THE CRETACEOUS 4. Here is another print out of a photo that my Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) took of a Cretaceous outcrop, but here a rabbit has made its home there. I marvel at the layers of our existence. We are part of this deep past standing on the tip of the iceberg of time. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah. SOUL BLOG with me. What stories does your SOUL want to tell? What might you know after you have told that SOUL STORY? Do you agree with me that we are all so much happier and healthier when we are connected to that CENTER PLACE OF BEING?




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