TATTOO: Interconnectedness between Cretaceous Past and Our Present

DINOSAUR-RHEA JANUS TATTOO. I created this image as a tattoo for  a fictional Argentine ichnologist, created by my dear boon companion, Tony Martin in his work-in-progress. The tattoo incorporates the head of a Cretaceous theropod dinosaur and that of an extant rhea, a large ostrich-like bird that roams the Argentine pampas in the same places where dinosaur fossils are found. The image has been stylized to reflect some aspects of the art of the indigenous people who inhabited the lands that are now Argentina. Art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter

JANUS

Happy New Year! Welcome 2018 and all that we have to discover in the upcoming months!

Hallelujah for travel both geographically and in time! Hallelujah for the imagination that allows us to take the present and past and merge them together to either tell a story or create an image!

The above image is an amalgam of ideas past and present. I created it as a tattoo for a female Argentine paleontologist protagonist in Tony Martin’s current work-in-progress (more to be revealed at a later date).

How appropriate that I would create a “Janus”-like figure at the beginning of 2018 and in the month of “January.” As a god of motion and change, Janus represents beginnings, passages, and duality.

RHEA

The tattoo combines the head of a birdlike dinosaur from the Cretaceous (looking to the past) with the forward-looking head of a rhea, a large Argentine flightless bird (similar to an ostrich) that roams freely on the pampas. Their shared evolutionary ancestry is represented by one large foot that could be both dinosaurian or avian. The foot is important since Tony’s character is an ichnologist, one who interprets behavior in the past from fossils including tracks.

The spiral at the animals’ heart center is a reminder of “deep time” and the interconnectedness of these creatures throughout evolutionary time.

PALEONTOGIST WITH ARGENTINIAN DINOSAURS. Here Tony Martin "becomes" a dinosaur as we waited for opening hours at  Plaza Huincul’s Museo Municipal Carmen Funes. For the tattoo image, I  used the profile of the dinosaur's head to the left of Tony. Notice how bird-like these dinosaurs are!  Photo by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter

One of the reasons that Tony and I went to Argentina during the winter break this past December was to explore and visit some of the paleontological riches of this South American country. We also wanted to understand both its indigenous and European culture.

Thanks to our Argentine friends - paleontological colleagues of Tony’s - we learned about the Aguada people who lived in northwest Argentina from 700-1000 and the motifs they used on their daily lives.

IMAGES FROM THE AGUADA CULTURE. These images were shown to me on my first day in Argentina by Diana Elizabeth Fernandez in response to my questions about rheas and the imagery of the indigenous people of Argentina. These ancient people called this large flightless bird a "suri."

Therefore, my tattoo image is informed by the imagery offered to me by Diana Elizabeth Fernandez, who is both an ichnologist and daughter of a anthropologist/ethnographer working with content related to these ancient Argentine people. I also incorporated other ideas I found as I searched Aguada images on the Internet, like the image below, which offered me the concept of Janus (cannot find the source, my apologies).

 

This tattoo image may evolve, just as Tony's work-in-progress is evolving. I will remain open to refining it. For now I am satisfied and so happy for the opportunity to collaborate with the imagination of my husband. Our shared life brings us great adventure and joy.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Diana Elizabeth Fernandez for her close listening to what Tony Martin and I were searching for during our visit to Argentina. We could not have had a better friend, colleague, or assistant in helping us locate images, understand Argentinian culture, and navigate the transportation system or Spanish language.

REVERB10: HALLELUJAH FOR the GLORIOUS 2010 MEMORIES!

Hallelujah for MEMORY. Hallelujah for both surface and deep time. Hallelujah for ways of KNOWING and BEING here on this GLORIOUS EARTH. I will not forget the color pink, Chiboogamoo’s 50^th birthday celebration, holding my 16 year-old feline Misha every day and appreciating him in his late years more teddy bear than tooth and claw, and the one solid month of teaching English to extraordinary and dedicated Korean executives at GT.

I want to REMEMBER winter explorations along the Victorian coast of Australia—the pungent woody scent of resin on my hands from grasping shrubs along the cliff face, the pounding ocean hammering the gray Cretaceous rocks along the shore, the utter freedom and playfulness of being with the “boys” on a treasure hunt looking for life traces from 100 million years ago.

Still in Australia, but in Queensland, I want to REMEMBER endless hours of driving on one trackroads in the outback seeing kangaroos hop under scrubby eucalyptus trees as we dodged oncoming mammoth roadtrains. Exploring a culture both on the surface and in deep time. Enjoying “cowboy” towns and their saloons, bush poetry, and XXXX beer. At the same time, imagining the vast ocean that covered this expanse of earth millions of years ago and the large marine animals that lived, died and left their bones to be found by curious sheep musterers.

Back in Atlanta, I want to REMEMBER the good 8 months that we four Spiritual Art Pilgrims intensely interacted with each other through our art, yearning to expand our connection with the GREAT MYSTERY. How we succeeded in BEING present to one another and using our art as vehicles to deepen our understanding.

I want to REMEMBER the JOY I experienced “being” HALLELUJAH and “doing” 15 minutes of creativity EACH DAY—even while I was in Australia! I want to remember collaborating with Cecelia Kane, Lesly Fredman, and Jesse Bathrick to make “Sally” prints on my birthday for Sally Wylde’s memorial parade. And the other collaborative art making with Robey, Sally, Jesse, and Karen and all the senior artmakers at the Clarkston Community Center and Sally’s writing group.

I will REMEMBER last moments with Sally imagining her future pilgrimages and holding Luis’ hand and smoothing the hair over his brow. Sunday brunch to say goodbye to Kiona and Syd as they headed off to California to start their business, Curious Cup. I am thankful for and will REMEMBER the deepening friendships with Judy, Jane, Robey, Cecelia, Jacq Marie, Edna, Jesse, and Karen. And how I sparked new friendships with Lisa, Sylvia, Kimme, Kathe, Mary Jane, and Gal in our Decatur community. I will REMEMBER Trixie, Darlene, Tina, Gale, and Rob connecting with me on Facebook as well as how Facebook brought me back in touch with cousins Karen, Annette, and Paul!

Hallelujah for REVERB10 for giving me the opportunity to REMEMBER and HOLD DEAR those very important events from 2010. MEMORY. Hallelujah for ways of KNOWING and BEING here on this GLORIOUS EARTH. SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah and tell me what you want to REMEMBER from 2010.

REVERB10: REMEMBRANCES OF CELEBRATIONS, BOTH LIFE AND DEATH

Hallelujah to CELEBRATIONS! In 2010 there were gatherings to commemorate birthdays, retirements, paleontological friendship, and death. (In one of these photos, you will see me standing by a painting of mine about the Life and Death cycle of the American Oyster Catcher, inspired by Jennifer Hilburn, ornithologist at St Catherines)

In Decatur, Georgia, my Chiboogamoo partied for three nights in a row during the week of April 15^th to acknowledge his half-century presence on this planet. We went from a neighborhood drop-by with beer, pizza and world music playing on the boombox, to Friday night drinking beer in Emory Village at Everybody’s with colleagues from the Department of Environmental Studies, to a bonafide bash on Saturday night with Greek food and performances of poetry, song, and drama provided by birthday guests from multiple layers of my brilliant husband’s life.

A little more than a month later, another decade birthday rocketed in Candler Park, 3 miles down the road in Mulberry Fields Community Garden with the cooing of nesting chickens and goats. To celebrate Jesse Bathrick and Lesly Fredman, cool, creative tigresses and newly minted 60 year-olds, everybody ate potluck dishes of fresh vegetables and fruit from the Dekalb Farmer’s Market served in large ceramic bowls. We danced to the Band of Desperate Men and drank cold white wine and beer. I left before the fireworks!

June brought a heart-wrenching celebration—a commemoration party to honor my best friend Jane’s husband, Luis Caamano (my friend too—see Hallelujah blogs). Loved and admired by his Dominican community, workplace colleagues, golfing companions, neighbors, and fellow martial artists, Luis was remembered magnificently at the Sung Ming Shu Dojo in Grant Park. Long tables were weighted down with homemade sandwiches, dips, beans, sweets and alcoholic beverages provided by one of his best friends, owner of the Candler Park Market. His mother Juanita, son Eddy, and close friends told stories about him that had us weeping and rolling on the floor with laughter! His dojo awarded him his black belt posthumously, only after they had taken the test in “proxy” for him. He would have received this black belt within weeks of his death. Photomontages encapsulated Luis’ 47 years of life. Most amusing of all was a video of him belly dancing with his close Dominican friends.

Oh! I could go on and on about the festive gatherings of 2010! At the end of June, there was the paleontological party that Mike and Naomi Hall gave for my Chiboogamoo and me in Melbourne before we headed off to do fieldwork along the coast of Victoria. We were hosted with much good cheer the evening of the same day that I arrived in Australia. My jetlag in conjunction with the red wine served with spicy homemade Indian cuisine left me in a somewhat elated and exalted state! For those who are crazily insane about the Cretaceous, the conversation couldn’t have been better! In addition to graduate students and the exceptionally talented paleo-artist Peter Trusler, Tom Rich, from the Museum of Victoria, was there with his wife and collaborator, Patricia Vickers-Rich, paleontologist at Monash University and director of its Science Centre. I never ceased to be amazed how shared interests create such excellent camaraderie. Chiboogamoo and I were Americans enfolded in warm Australian paleo-hospitality!

Later, at the end of the summer, once we had returned to the US and back to our respective schools, we applauded close friend Judy Carpenter for “not” going back to work at her retirement party. Champagne was consumed in large amounts.

I will conclude my memories of celebrations with one that takes all the air out of me. Unfortunately, my community had another dear friend to say good-bye to. On September 11, we mustered together bouquets of rosemary, sunflowers, zinnias—any fragrant living plant we could take from our gardens to honor Sally Wylde’s life at the Oakhurst Baptist Church. After songs were sung and stories told, we paraded to the Oakhurst Community Garden carrying puppets of cardinal heads, butterflies, and whimsical animals as well as Sally’s artwork on sticks. The paraders were accompanied by drumming and then a New Orlean’s style-band. Some of us danced because Sally would have liked us to! At the garden, we ate potluck dishes and drank wine and beer as the sun set and the white Christmas lights strung about the garden illuminated us all.

2010 was filled with Loving Celebrations of LIFE and DEATH. Hallelujah for friends and community to laugh, sing, cry, and dance with!