ART WITHOUT MANUALS: Reading your own heart!

THE HEART OF THE UNKNOWABLE. I journey to the unknown because it is a way of life, of breathing and being present to the ever changing moment. THE DAILY PRACTICE teaches me ever so gently to remember to breathe and live. (Art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

Hallelujah for our IMAGINATIONS! It is through our beautiful brain's imagining that we CREATE something out of "nothing." The magic is in the "nothing"! That nothing consists of our neurons that have developed elaborate pathways based on our life experiences! Such individual constructs allow us to process the world out beyond us differently and uniquely! All of what we SEE is fodder for our ART! Meat for our SOULS! Hallelujah!

Let's acknowledge education, the "manuals" for how-to-do-something-perfectly, as having value and then decide to set them aside to BE whatever THE DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE has brought for us to consider. We can always return to the "manuals" but not to the moment of who we are right now! Fix yourself in your drawing or writing now. Correct later if that is what you want! 

THE DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE is about YOU--perhaps--in the raw!

Clarrisa Pinkola Estes in The Creative Fire, Myths and Stories on the Cycles of Creativity says this about manuals:

"The main struggle that people have with creativity is that they stop themselves from doing what comes naturally. In a culture such as ours where the simple is often suspect, and the rustic is looked upon as not sophisticated enough, where things that are lively are down played so as not to be perhaps too curative or astonishing.  Too often our deepest knowings about how to construct our own creative life, how to follow the impusles and the broadcasts that we feel deep inside of ourselves all of these have been replaced by manuals."

WE ARE NOT ALONE ON OUR JOURNEY. Considering all the parts of our psyche, we have multiple companions as we sit at our table drawing or computers writing! Then we have the community of like-minded souls who are on parallel journeys and can share their creative meanderings with us. Let's share THE DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE here. (Art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

METAPHOR OF LOVE.  (Art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

METAPHOR OF MOTHER.  (Art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

I embrace the "rustic" aspects of my art in order to SEE who I am. I prefer the lack of polish and welcome the characters of my imagination who pop up with persistence in my daily drawings. 

Dear Pilgrim! What is your deepest knowing that longs to be expressed? Is it possible for you to step aside the high expectations of our culture and to step into your own knowing? 

Soul Blog with me at Coffee with Hallelujah or share your ideas with THE DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE on Facebook, here. 

#REVERB12 (Day 11): What was music to your ears, literally or metaphorically?

SWIMMING IN THE WORDS OF A CANTADORA.  (art by Hallelujah Truth)

#REVERB 12 (Day 11) PROMPT: What was music to your ears in 2012, literally or metaphorically?

Let me introduce you to the MUSIC to my ears for 2012, heart, soul, and entire creative being--the stories of CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTES! You might know her name because of her 1989 bestseller, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories about the Wild Woman Archetype, which acknowledges the deep knowing that we women have within ourselves. But it wasn't until 2012, that I listened to an extensive body of Dr. Estes work on audio, especially Creative Fire!

CREATING WITH THE FORCE OF YOUTHFUL FREEDOM: INVENTIVELY SPEAKING!

HALLELUJAH TRUTH EYES AND EARS. I see and hear you. If you see and hear me, tell me your story. I am telling you mine. So it is the way we are meant to live, sharing our stories around the fire of our hearts, now the internet in this soul blogging world. (art by me, Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah PILGRIMS! "Enjoy the decade you are in now," says my love, one of my beloved mentors, the one who at this very moment is holding my ear and whispering TRUTHS to me--Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I am in LOVE once again. How grand it is to listen to someone speak and know that you are meant to learn what they have to give you! How glorious it is to KNOW, TRULY KNOW that we have a SOUL COMMUNITY out there, out here in the ethersphere of the internet. 


On April 16th, 2012, only a few days ago, a Russian blogger featured some of my art on her blog. How mysterious and odd and strange and wonderful is the blogger, dressed like a gypsy holding a pink rose or poppy all aglow would find my work, go through multiple old blog entries to choose the ones she liked! She has given me a gift of "attention"! I feel as though my SOUL has been witnessed from afar. HOW DID SHE FIND ME? In this huge, magnificent WORLD? Ah the mysterious ways of the SOUL! Are we truly destined to meet certain others in our lives? I would love to hear back from this Russian blogger!

I AM HERE! This is my universe and I am seeking like minded souls as I look into what this LIFE has to offer. 

This morning when I coached with my Artist Conference Network partner, I took a stand to create with the freedom of boys playing with bottle rockets on the American Fourth of July! I draw with the ambition of exploding neurons and popping synapses and colliding with YOU, DEAR SOUL PILGRIM in a fantastical dance celebrating the universe! 

BETWEEN BOUNDARIES.  As I draw and imagine myself in relation to you and to another aspect of myself, I envision transversing boundaries. I am eternally youthful, not regretting any "gathering of years" as Clarissa Pinkola Estes speaks of aging.

May all of you, DEAR PILGRIMS create, recreate, and celebrate whatever age you are now...our LIVES are so precious! That's Coffee with Hallelujah! 

WHOOSH!

POMEGRANATE SEEDS, GESTATION, CREATIVITY DURING PERIODS OF DARKNESS

GESTATING. While waiting for what is next, I draw. Working full-time at the Georgia Tech Language Institute diminishes my drawing time. Patiently, I meditate each morning...making the marks I can in the moments allowed me before I leave to teach my international students--many of them inspiration for the drawings I make in the morning. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Recently, I have started a new habit! As I sit down to draw, I put in a CD of Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Numerous times, have I listened to "The Creative Fire: Myths and Stories about the Cycles of Creativity." One the central myths she talks about is Persephone's journey to the underworld and her becoming the bride of Hades while her mother Demeter suffers above. Dr. Estes explanation of this myth is rich and merits repeated listenings. I would like to blog more about my understanding of this myth in the future when I return from my visit to the underworld. 


That's Coffee with Hallelujah! Soul Blog with me! Tell me of your creativity journeys. What do you know of the underworld? Of Clarissa Pinkola Estes?