REVERB10: ARTFULLY REFLECTING the HERE and NOW in FIXED IMAGES

Hallelujah for images that capture the human spirit! Hallelujah for SYMBOLS in these images that provide meaning and courage to each and every one of us. Today, to meet the REVERB10 December 25^th CHALLENGE, I have chosen one of the images I made at the beginning of my JOURNEY along the Dinosaur Trail in Queensland, Australia.

This image, “Stepping Out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats,” began in the tropical city of Townsville along the northeastern coast of Australia. Because it was the end of June—winter—the cool comfortable temperatures permitted me to sit out on our modest balcony with a view of the Coral Sea, a cup of coffee, and traveling art supplies.

The night before, we had watched Fruit Bats, or “flying foxes,” drop from their roosting trees and fly into darkness, their heavy mammal bodies lifted by fleshy webby wings. In the morning, noisy mobs of lorikeets had roared by our windows at sunrise. The Townsville environment percolating around me was rich with seen and unseen fauna. From my perch overlooking the sea, I asked myself the following question: “What does my SOUL want to express about BEING here right now?”

“Stepping Out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats” emerged, with me, Hallelujah Truth, entering the world of SEA and AIR. I am not alone in this adventure. Wallaby, my VULNERABILITY, accompanies me. Flying foxes pull me into the UNKNOWN. From the corner of this UNKNOWN, black cockatoos hover under my feet, singing of approaching nurturing rain. Change is at bay. I am being summoned to an ADVENTURE.

Later in the morning, Chiboogamoo and I drove west, leaving the tropical coastal environment and traveling into the Mitchell Grass plains, flat treeless expanses of rolling grass. Each morning along the Dinosaur Trail, I began a drawing/painting reflecting my state of BEING as I studied fossils of living forms preserved from 100 million years ago.

Since I was accompanying a brilliant paleontologist—my husband—but am not one, this ARTFUL REFLECTION expressed in daily drawing/painting is a stimulating tool for maintaining ME, for integrating my art with my husband’s science (read about Townsville in his blog, The Great Cretaceous Walk)! How fun! How stimulating!

Therefore, “Stepping out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats” is an image which reveals what I love most about LIFE. By BEING PRESENT to our SPIRITS, we can make discoveries about ourselves wherever we are—physically or spiritually! Hallelujah! (Here in Georgia, I have returned to work on this painting twice, and I still consider it “not” finished! I see myself revisiting the fruit bats and cockatoos until I feel the image holds the “energy” I need it to.)

SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah! Share your response to the December 25^th REVERB10 PROMPT: Photo—a PRESENT to YOURSELF—Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

CREATIVITY CROUCHING LIKE A CAT

My CREATIVITY has been crouching in a crevice
behind the dishwasher in our over-scheduled household.
Clothed in a Siamese cat body nestled in dust and spider webs,
She patiently waits for the darkness of silent nights to emerge.

Pilgrims, I ask you what your relationship is to your CREATIVITY? I trust mine like I do my MOST BELOVED FELINE. She wanders. She hides. Some times, she bares her teeth and claws and yowls. 

But then there is the PURR. There is the CONSTANCY of feeding at the FOOD BOWL. We sleep together and find ways to play--even if it is as unremarkable as knocking the gel pen off the art table or meowing excitedly at the fresh smell of a hot Kroger rotissiere chicken!

So! I am defining the relationship I have with my creativity as being similar to the one I have with my feline companion. My CREATIVITY is constant, but SHE has the independence of a skilled quadruped evolved for climbing trees and finding clandestine spaces to rejuvenate. 

Although I have not been blogging since December, I have been having my COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH. Every day, I have done my SOUL WORK--creating a new image in pen on paper. My words have been "crouching behind" my image work, waiting for a time like now to emerge.

The image I am showing here reflects my connection with the energy I find contained in imagery from northwest Australia aboriginal art. Observe the two white ghost like figures, the long neck turtle, the snake, Wandjina, and the kangaroo. These figures have been evolving through my daily drawing practice. I have found it meaningful to merge images from my domestic life such as my feline companion and the ever present spiral--my symbol for journey.

I am so happy that I have spiraled back to this blog to do soul blogging with you sojourners! I ask you FELLOW PILGRIMS out there to write and tell me about the relationship you have with your CREATIVITY.