Saturday, December 5, 2015

REVERB15 (Day 5): Selfie proclamations and the genesis phenomenon

Hallelujah for affirming the SELF--isn't that what daily blogging in this genre is about? Being exuberantly who and what we are and PROCLAIMING it through image and word!

The December 5th REVERB15 prompt is an invitation to do just that: Go on, show us your selfie! You know you want to. For bonus points, give us a montage of the photos you have shared during each Reverb you’ve participated in.

My SELFie exuberance manifests in three ways: 
writing (blogging), 
making visual art, and yes 
being captured in photographs. 

First of all, so much of who I am is expressed the writing of my creative mission as my persona Hallelujah Truth in this blog, COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH:

If you have 15 minutes for a cup of coffee in the morning, you have time to create!

So my first SELFie in today's post is the mission statement and logo I created for COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH with the loving desire to celebrate each and everyone's uniquities (especially mine) each and every day, no matter how brief:
COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH. If you have time to have coffee, you have time to create. Begin what is yours to create today. My motto is "Not good, not bad, just is." Please join me and my warm online community on Facebook in the group, The Daily Creative Practice. (Art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)
The second SELFie for today is an image from a series of visual images I began in October as I wrestled once again with the acceptance of death as a part of the cycle of life. Naming this series, "Hallelujah Life," I express my HALLEUJAHness in the form of the Day of the Dead skull. The diadem of four-petalled flowers reprsents the living HALLELUJAH
GENESIS PHENOMENON. Ask what is soulful to you. Write it down. Draw it. Photograph it. Repeat to yourSELF (and others): Not good. Not bad. Just is. This is the best SELFie one can make! Here in this unfinished image, I have parts of my SOUL, my SELF. In my cosmos of Hallelujah (my psyche), I have many characters that represent parts of mySELFie. I call this image the "Genesis Phenomenon" because the skull represents death both real and psychological in my life. Yes, the skull figure is mySELFie. But so are the other characters--even the one-four petalled flower is a part of my SOUL. These images express my understanding and trust that life continues. Life is generated from the soupy mix of death and life. The Australian god, Wandjina, long ago become the image for expressing my animus--or male energy. The woman on the right with her head covered is the part of mySELFie that enterains the MYSTERY of life and its MOTHERING components. The small animal licking the flower and embracing the skull figure emerged from my observation and connection with the wallabies I saw both on Tasmania and the larger continent of Australia. I let this wallaby figure provide "creature" comfort, warm soft unconditional acceptance. As aspects of our psyches die off, as people we love depart this marvelous, wonderful Earth, there is the GENESIS PHENOMENON. And life is renewed daily through creative acts of the living. (Art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

The third and final SELFie for this REVERB15 post happens to be three images taken by the three people who photograph me the most often: 
PROFESSIONAL PORTRAIT. Although Lisa Alexander Streib is a fine artist photographer, she was kind enough to take this professional photo for me in May 2015 for the launching of my business endeavors and website. It takes a village to photograph me. My hair was done by a professional hair stylist who designs hair pieces for the Atlanta opera and works for the movie industry but also happens to live in my neighborhood.
Photo by Tony Martin, aka Chiboogamoo
 LIVING AN ARTFUL LIFE. While this photo is not exactly flattering of me, it does represent an aspect of my creative expressiveness. As a member of InterPlay Atlanta's performance troupe, the Soulprint Players, I am given the opportunity to dance, tell stories and give voice to being human, without the need for perfection. Once again, I summon the words: Not good, not bad, just is. My husband is always kind enough to document our performances. This photo was taken in November 2015 at the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in East Atlanta, Georgia, during the performance we did with guest artist Masankho Banda on the theme of "Living an Artful Life."

STUDY OF RUTH. This last SELFie photo was taken by Trish Weaver, my paleontologist friend via my husband. Now a creative companion on my Facebook group, The Daily Creative Practice, she surprised me with a series of black and white images she took in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Georgia, on a recent visit from her home in Raleigh, North Carolina. After walking along a two-mile stretch of the Atlanta Beltline, a pathway traversing the center of downtown Atlanta, we arrived at the park and sat for a few minutes while I explained the city skyline to another friend who had accompanied us and was a first time visitor to Hotlanta! Trish managed to capture a series of expressive photos of me in a few minutes without my posing for her. What a gift to the SELF-a-tude of another person. Thanks Trish!
RUTH GLORIOUS RUTH. This titled was given to this image of me by Trish Weaver who took the photo at the end of November 2015. Again, not exactly a flattering image, it does elicit something I like to see in mySELFie. Life? Hair (Those of you who don't know it, I struggle with an auto-immune disease that causes balding)? Time? City Skyline? Like the drawing I made above, "Genesis Phenomenon," this photo has symbolic elements for me that contain parts of my psyche. How wonderful when another artist can give that to me! I blogged about it here.
That's COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH! Soul blog with me and declare your affirmation of self. What do you have to proclaim that is solely and soulfully about you and only you? I wish you could share images of yourself here. If you are REVERBing this year, I invite you to post a link to your blogpost in response to today's prompt.

10 comments:

  1. I will never view a selfie in the same way again. I am just agog with your deeply connected, soulful exploration of yourself in the Genisis Phenomenon. Thank you so much for the montage of images, each a true facet of an intricate and complex jewel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Corinne your response to my blog post is so warm and embracing. Thank you. Thank you for taking time to engage in my image and words. It is such a gift to have one's expressions embraced and reflected upon. I still haven't succeed in finding your blog. Would you be so kind as to post a link here?

      Delete
  2. Ah! Pieces of Ruth, slices of oneself captured for eternity or for as long as the medium survives. I always enjoy reading about your quest to engage more deeply with yourself and what is going on in your life. I've been particularly taken with your "day of the dead" series. Thanks, as always, for sharing my work and for inviting all of us to be creative with ourselves and others. I suspect I'll post some sort of selfie in response to this on the DCP, but I wanted to comment here as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trish or Lunkhead, whichever you will respond to at this moment in time! I'm so privilged to follow your creative stream as it cascades out in the form of photographs, paintings, and stories, as well as comments written on the Daily Creative Practice or my blog. Thank you for the support.

      Delete
  3. I've continually said how much I like your art and how it invites such deep reflection and exploration for me. And it's certainly a delight seeing those three wonderful photographs of you. But what I'm really carrying away with me today that I'll hold as a mantra - "not good, not bad, just is." YES!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deborah! Thank you for catching hold of that mantra. I have repeated it so many times, that I am now owning it for myself. However, the phrase did not originate with me but with Natalie Goldberg in her book, Writing Down the Bones, which has been a seminal work in my life since I read it about 27 years ago or so when it first was published. I believe I have mostly come to LIVE that approach to my creative work and life. I still need to breathe it in and out!

      Delete
  4. WOW! All of these portraits are STUNNING and POWERFUL! It's clear that you are DEFINTELY grounded and centered in your creative power in all of these photos, which is reflected in your mantra and your mission that one can create in just 15 minutes, while drinking your morning coffee! I always remind people that one can get quite a lot it creative action done in just 15 minutes, so it's great to see a creative kindred working with this concept!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Kindred Spirit! The 15 minutes is such a gift and such a wonderful permission to BE! I have so many incomplete works or works in progress as a result. However, often the permission to do only 15 minutes results in hours of creative composition and play!

      Delete
  5. Oh that last one is so powerful! I must click and read the story behind it now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And now that I've read the original post - Mapplethorpe - of course! I totally see it .

    ReplyDelete