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.