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.

REVERB10: HALLELUJAH FRIENDSHIP: WE ARE NOT ALONE

Hallelujah for FRIENDSHIP! During 2010, I deepened many “human” friendships and have written about them in my blog, Coffee with Hallelujah. Today, in response to the prompt challenge for REVERB10, I am posting a Hallelujah Truth image, one that is populated with my “imaginary” friends or fragments of my psyche.

Each morning during 2010, I sat down with my coffee, watercolor pencils, crayons, paper, and micron pens. NO WORRIES—I accepted whatever image came to me. I was not concerned about “invention” or “novelty.” Instead, I invited images to reappear as frequently as they would like.

While entertaining Wandjina, Green Mother, Turtle, Snake, Spiral, Crocodile, Wallaby, I met new characters: Rabbit Ears and Leaf Head. Sometimes, I consciously invited images to join us. For example, during the month of March, I was tutoring English to Tenzin Norbu, a master Thangka painter from the Norbulingka Institute in Dharmsala. In exchange for the tutorials, I attended a Saturday art class at the Carolos Museum at Emory to practice Thangka painting. When Tenzin Norbu left Atlanta, he gave me a book with grid-lined images of Buddha. For the mornings that followed, I began my Hallelujah drawings with one of these images of Budhha. However, Buddha did not linger to have coffee with me in the mornings or become part of my psyche.

The three images that grew closest to my SOUL in 2010 are Wandjina, Wallaby, and Green Mother.

Each time I draw Wandjina, I am reminded of the BALANCE to my feminine nature. With his masculine energy, Wandjina gives me strength and force to take ACTION, to be BRAVE!

Wallaby reminds me of my VULNERABILITY. I hold Wallaby close and protect him. In doing so, I choose to be vulnerable but with scrutiny. Being open does not mean getting slammed by “soldiers of harsh reality.”

Green Mother emerged from the images I was drawing as a reflection on my female Muslim students at Georgia Tech. After repeatedly drawing women wearing hijabs, I found Green Mother. Green Mother became an abstracted form PULLing me into the UNKNOWN—part of the GREAT MYSTERY in my LIFE.

If I had to pick one FRIEND that I have gotten to know this year—it would be HER—GREEN MOTHER—GREAT MYSTERY. Our friendship has been gradual but deepened each time she appears in my drawings. Hallelujah!

ALTER/ALTAR MYSELF THROUGH ART

 As a PILGRIM and ARTIST, I seek to alter/altar myself. I travel my journey looking for THE magical interactions with CREATION that will transform me and honor my soulfulness.

Everyone understands that the word “alter” means “change.” And we might all agree on the positive outcome that this proverb expresses “A rolling stone gathers no moss” –that we stay youthfully unencumbered if we allow ourselves to keep moving to new physical and metaphorical locations. Using another figurative comparison…isn’t it desirable to be like maturing snakes shedding old dry outgrown skins of our former selves and with that skin—stale  un-useful thoughts and behaviors?

But what does it mean to make “altar” a verb? In the 80’s, when I was getting instruction about Buddhism from the man who served as my Master, Dr. James Yu, at Buddha Heart Village in a small town in Alabama, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that when Buddhists bow to Buddha, they are essentially bowing to the concept of an ENLIGHTENED SELF. The SELF is HOLY. Because of this HOLINESS of the SELF and all of living creation, each living spirit can be “altared”—transformed by enlightenment, thus being lifted away from the physical birth-death life cycle. Each of us is responsible for “altering” and “altaring” ourselves along our journeys from the PHYSICAL to the SPIRITUAL.

Our PHYSICAL LIFE is a process of changing and becoming, and this SPIRITUAL JOURNEY is mysterious, magical, and ultimately the only PATH for me, and I do it through my ART. My ART PILGRIMAGE holds the potential of CHANGING, EXPANDING, and MOVING ME towards BECOMING “a” Buddha—or in the very least along the pathway of being more of an ENLIGHTENED BEING. 

That’s it for today’s SOUL BLOGGING. HALLELUJAH for all of us PILGRIMS on our JOURNEYS. HALLELUJAH wishes you all a MEANINGFUL TRIP through this life. Write me and tell me about your “alter/altar” experiences. What is your AVENUE? Do you alter/altar through ART? Another way? Blessings to you all.