Spiritual Art Pilgrim Interview #8: PHOTOGRAPHER TY BUTLER DEEPENS HIS SPIRITUALITY THROUGH THE EXPLORATION OF LIGHT

TY BUTLER MAKING ORDINARY OBJECTS SPIRITUAL.  This photograph resulted from, “An advertising job I had was for the manufacturer of these polishing pads that came in various colors," says Ty Butler.  "The photographs the client had taken before showed no detail in the product.  In general, the more ordinary the product – the more exciting the project was to me and the more surprised the client to see it for the first time.” For me, Hallelujah, this image rockets me into outerspace and into the affirmation that all things are connected. 

Hallelujah for SOUL connection with other SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS! Hallelujah for photographer Ty Butler and his profoundly deep and abiding love for LIGHT. On a warm sunny afternoon in February 2012, Ty surrendered himself to an interview with me, Hallelujah Truth! I have been hungering for years to just sit with Ty and listen to him talk about the way he configures his SOUL through the exploration of LIGHT and PHOTOGRAPHY.

TY BUTLER, SPIRITUAL ART PHOTOGRAPHER

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Give me your personal definition of ART.

TY BUTLER: To me art represents contact with the inner self. It is like the bridge to what I really am that is beyond what I consciously know. It is very close to spirituality although art may deal more with forms, shapes and designs, whatever.

That which you are in touch with is like a clear crystal that has no interpretation, but as it comes through the filters of your life, it takes form and shape. It is very much a direct dial sort of experience that transcends all thought, transcends what you already think you know. And some times, it disrupts what you know—which is very liberating.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Talk to me about what you mean by “disrupt.”

TY BUTLER: I’ve thought before that to live an artist’s life you have the responsibility to disrupt daily patterns of thought and to establish overriding pathways. It is this disruption that takes us out of the muck we are in. No amount of thinking can ever do that.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Are you saying daily patterns of thought are “muck”?

TY BUTLER: I have a great respect for the organized thought patterns of the mind, and I am aware of how important they are in order to live in the world and be in contact with others. However, I don’t think that tape recordings—that which is already known—inspire. I don’t find the known inspirational. I only find inspiration in the unknown as it comes out into the known. This process lifts me, elevates me.

MORE THAN GUMMY BEARS! “In my mind’s eye, I could see the “aura” around the yellow Gummy Bear.  Those on the plastic fork would also reveal their “auras” if they were closer to the plastic plate.”—Ty Butler

ICE TRAY. “Pulling an ice tray out of the freezer I found myself falling into it.  When I select subjects to photograph in TYLIGHT I usually have the same sensation upon looking closely.” —Ty Butler

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: In the past year-and-a-half, you’ve been recovering from a brain injury resulting from a fall from the roof of your house. What have you learned in the past months about patterns—the known, versus creative thought—the unknown?

TY BUTLER: I have had to learn to respect all aspects of life. And that includes respect for the orderly facets of the mind. Channels have been established in our brains to relate to the world. For me, it is really a balancing act between the inspired and what the mind already knows.

That which I am seeking to contact and which results in art can never be had through mimicry or what has been done before. That is my driving force. I don’t understand why anyone wants to do what has been done before. To me, it defeats the purpose of what is the inspirational force that results in art.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is SPIRITUALITY to you?

TY BUTLER: Spirituality to me is the direct contact and experience of the source of ALL. It is direct experience of the infinite.

DIRECT EXPERIENCE WITH THE INFINITE. This photograph is one of my most favorites of Ty’s work.  In response to what he titles, “Lost Work Glove,” I want to weep. It is this connection with something universal and deep that allows him to become engaged with ordinary objects like this work glove. He wrote for this caption, “Amazing the beautiful things one sees while walking the dog.”

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is the connection between the ART you make and your spirituality?

TY BUTLER: The more pure the inner contact is, the more powerful the resulting art will be. For me, the connection between my spirituality and photography is inner contact without conscious thought. That’s a real hard thing to achieve in photography because photography is technical on so many levels. The way I do it is to keep my attention on the light itself rather than the subjects it falls upon. It is hard to answer when people ask me, “What subjects do you like to shoot?” Because for me, it is the experience with light that matters.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is it about light?

TY BUTLER: For me, light and spirituality are the same thing. Now, the concept of “art” is tricky. In the art world, there are many expected and respected formats. Those come into play in terms of selling art. I am not really concerned if my art is printed on this paper or has this amount of longevity—those are marketing considerations, more like after thoughts. I’m interested in the direct experience of art.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Can you give me an example?

TY BUTLER: I can tell you that the greatest teacher that I’ve had in my life would be recognized by very few people as being an artist. I worked in a transformer factory, one that made overhead transformers like the ones on telephone poles that are filled with oil. His name was Don Smith. This was back when I was just getting out of college that I met and worked with this man. At his workstation, he tied together the wires and components that made the transformer inside, and he did it with little strips of white cloth. He could have tied any old knot, but he tied the most perfect little bows with these pieces of white cloth and when he finished his job, the transformer was beautiful because of his loving touch. In the next station, the entire inner assembly was submerged into a tank of oil, and no one ever saw it again. He never looked beyond the station where he worked, and he always tied the white bows perfectly.

That is what he taught me about art—the direct experience of making it.

“THE POSSIBILITIES THERE ARE ENDLESS,” Ty expresses about this piece that he entitled: Hairbrush and Scarf--compliments of the Dollar Store Prop House.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH:  In what way does your ART enhance your SPIRITUALITY?

TY BUTLER: (Chuckling)…Well…through inner contact with the great unknown, the awareness of my spirituality grows. It’s what I am all ready, but I am waking up to what is there and strengthening my contact with it. 

I have never been able to understand why someone can be such a great artist and at the same time apparently be a bad person. I don’t understand how that works. It seems like strong creative contact would lead to good deeds in life. I don’t understand why that isn’t necessarily the case because spirituality has its own morality.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Has SPIRITUALITY always been a source of your ARTMAKING?  Why? If not, when did the SPIRITUALITY emerge?

TY BUTLER: The love of light came first. Light represented a way to keep in mind the infinite on a daily basis. I saw what light reflects on and not light itself. I don’t think one can see light itself. Instead, we see light bouncing and reflecting off the surfaces of everything that makes up the visual world—light reflections.

Photography was a way to pay for my meditative experience.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: When did you start doing photography that was connected to your spirituality?

TY BUTLER: In college. The best training that a photographer can get is the observation of light in as many circumstances as possible. So the early part of my development was seeing light reflection and shadow in many different circumstances. I didn’t think that I knew what anything looked like. Any one thing could be experienced in so many different lighting situations that I felt kind of ignorant of reality.

So the quest became to see if there was a “visual essence” in everything around us. And my work with photography has really been the attempt to capture this “essence” and share it with others. That is why I kept on being a photographer—it is my desire to do that.

Of course, I have never seen the “visual essence” but I have gotten a whole lot closer than I would have otherwise.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Define “visual essence”….

TY BUTLER: Visual essence is a self-emanating light coming from objects. These objects are their own illumination. In my photographs, this is the look I am trying to capture. There are some certain states of mind and ways of seeing where you can glimpse such “things.”

VISUAL ESSENCE OF ICE. Ty created this photo, Bourbon on the Rocks, for the cover of Emory University’s Science Magazine that contained an article on the effects of alcohol in young people.

PARTY STRAWS. “Things appeal to kids for a reason.” –Ty Butler    

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is your purpose for making ART?

TY BUTLER: For me the art I make is a by-product of the inner contact.Part of the reason I came back is to share the reality of how each and everything around us is a piece of art.  (Ty is referring to his recovery from the accident he had in November 2010. During his lengthy recovery from falling from the roof, he was placed in a doctor-induced coma so that his brain could heal. There were times that he wasn’t expected to survive.)

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Long before your accident, you had photographed numerous every day objects to reveal them through “TYLIGHT,” the lighting system you designed and patented.

TY BUTLER: Yes, for example, once, I went to the junkyard and got twenty or so pieces of junk in different shapes and configurations. I was completely overwhelmed the rest of the day after I got back. I looked at the pieces in TYLIGHT and each thing was its own “art.”

This “art,” which is inherent in everything, is something we don’t normally see, but I could see “art” in each thing sitting there.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: And you want to make a distinction between the “art” inherent in everything—its “essence”—and the piece of art which is valued for its obeisance to the rules of composition imposed by the academy?

TY BUTLER:  Yes, if I wanted to make one of these photos of junk into a piece of “art,” I would have to crop it and be concerned about the various rules of composition.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Your career in advertising began in 1978, and you had been doing commercial photography for more than 30 years up until your accident…is that right?

TY BUTLER: My career as a commercial photographer has been an excuse to support my investigation of light. By fulfilling my responsibilities to my clients, I developed a new lighting system. It took me three years to design and build, and I patented Tylight in 1991.

ON THE BRIDGE OF TYLIGHT. Ty Butler poses on top of the photographic lighting system he invented, built, and patented. He was told that his ideas wouldn't work! He followed his intuition anyway and succeeded!

The purpose of TYLIGHT is to give things the appearance of being self-illuminated. Although the light is not coming from within the object, it is a way of showing what its true visual nature is.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: And now, you are retired from commercial advertising, can you tell me more about the SPIRITUAL “purpose” of your coming back from your brain injury? How does ART figure in?

TY BUTLER: On November 7, 2010, the day I fell, is the day I stopped trying to find my place in photography and in art. I had 33 years of programming of having a purpose for everything.

Now, my photography doesn’t necessarily need a purpose. When I became interested in photography when I was 14, I didn’t care about showing anybody my pictures. I was so involved in making the photographs. In college my photographs stayed in a box under my bed. I wasn’t interested in showing them because it was the process of taking them that mattered to me.

When I was building TYLIGHT, it took three years to build because I only worked on it when I was intuitively guided--never when I was in conscious thought.

I was told by others that TYLIGHT wasn’t going to work. It just wasn’t the way lighting should be done. So I kept TYLIGHT hidden and followed my intuition. All those years, I had faith in what was going to happen, but I didn’t have any tangible proof of what the result would be. It was only after hundreds of hours of construction and I had completed the invention, that I thought about how TYLIGHT could be used in business.

I built TYLIGHT out of personal philosophical curiosity and a drive to see something real. I would never have done it if I had had to produce a certain kind of result.

Instead, I wanted to see and share my sense of discovery, amazement and respect for the world around me and how far it is from the stereotypes of what is thought to be beautiful and what isn’t.

TOILET TISSUE. At the grocery store, looking at a roll and thinking “This is beautiful.”—Ty Butler

HOME DEPOT PLANT CHAIN. In TYLIGHT, ordinary brass becomes glowing gold that illuminates the surface around it.  Someone approached me after seeing this photograph and asked me to shoot his gold plated jewelry. Knowing his intention, I refused, partially because of the inspirational way TYLIGHT came to me in meditation, I always observed strict rules on how it was used. –Ty Butler

SWISS CHARD. When I looked into our refrigerator, I saw this photograph looking down from space.  The frowning face was something revealed in TYLIGHT. In that world, faces are seen everywhere.—Ty Butler

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Any concluding remarks?

TY BUTLER: For me, spirituality has its own interior guidance for one’s life.  It has its own morality. I don’t need books or somebody else to tell me how I should live. The stronger my spiritual contact the better and happier my life will be.

BUTTON ON BLUE. I brought home my mom’s button collection after she passed.  No wonder she loved these things.  This one is about an inch in diameter. —Ty Butler

SHARED APPRECIATION FOR OTHERNESS.  Hallelujah Truth, me--visionary artist, embraces  soul mate  Ty Butler, visionary photographer. The occasion for this photograph was significant! A group of friends celebrated Ty's sixtieth birthday in the of summer 2011. Even more importantly, we enthusiastically welcomed his return to life after a traumatic fall from the roof of his house in November 2010 and near death experience in the months following. Ty says he returned for a reason! Hallelujah! (See my blog entry on how I met Ty Butler.)

BIRD FOOTPRINTS. My pet cockatiel walked across the sand and then did a little dance.  It happened on the first attempt. —Ty Butler

A NOTE FROM TY BUTLER REGARDING THE IMAGES YOU SEE ON THE BLOG POST HERE: The appearance of the following subjects do not result from computer enhancement but are natural results of illumination in the TYLIGHT Lighting Invention.  After finishing the invention, my overwhelming dilemma was not “what to” photograph but what “not to” photograph. Our world is a place of wonderful beauty.  It is literally everywhere we choose to see.

VISIT OTHER SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS IN HALLELUJAH TRUTH’S INTERVIEWS!

1. Cecelia Kane (painter, drawer, performance art)

2. Robey Tapp (book sculptor, collagist, painter)

3. Karen Phillips (painter)

4. Carol Ruckdeschel (naturalist, painter, drawer)

5. Flora Rosefsky (drawer, painter, collagist)

6. Jesse Bathrick (in progress)

7. Kenny Whitfield (Bahamian Wood Carver)

PATTY GRIFFIN’S IMPOSSIBLE DREAM and the JOURNEY OF ONE SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM

Great Feminine Mystery (All Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the JOURNEY! Hallelujah for being a PILGRIM. Today, I wept as I listened to Patty Griffin’s 2004 album, Impossible Dream, for the tenth time in three days as I’ve been making the images you see here with this blog. I’ve had this Patty Griffin album for years and loved Griffin’s wailing plaintive voice but never really listened to the lyrics. Yesterday, my PILGRIM ears perked up every time the “Rowing Song” came on:

As I row, row, row

Going slow, slow, slow

Just down below me is the old sea…

Nobody knows, knows, knows

So many things things so

So out of range…

Sometimes so strange

Sometimes so sweet

Sometimes so lonely…

I have been blogging as Hallelujah Truth, SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM, for more than two years now. Sometimes, I write about art, death, science, teaching, or just daily struggles and how ART heals, but ALWAYS, I am writing about JOURNEY.

Recently, there have been events in my life that are so HUGE and PAINFUL, that I have been unable to find an appropriate way to blog about them. In August, my young nephew Thomas committed suicide two weeks before he turned sixteen. This event deepened my commitment to JOURNEY of AUTHENTICITY, yet left me even farther from the HOME of the familiar that I left once I decided I had to be ME and I had to HEAL and GROW.

My family members, who are experiencing collective pain, are slowly finding individual ways to lessen the intensity of their grief surrounding Thomas’ death. I, too, find that to keep moving on my SOJOURN, I must go to the SOURCE of the anguish and allow my feelings to BE. Perhaps, I will write more about Thomas at another time when I KNOW more about the BIRTH and DEATH cycle.

At this moment, my Chiboogamoo is at the University of Georgia in Athens to give a talk about his Australian research. I could not go with him because my feline companion of 17 years is dying, and I can’t bear to part with him. My ATTACHMENTS—large and small—don’t matter, for I am alone—we are all alone on our JOURNEYS. I must eventually release my dear kitty Misha and in doing so might find some resolve to accept Thomas’ premature departure from this EARTH.

The rest of Griffin’s “Rowing Song” expresses my sentiments:

The further I go

More letters from home never arrive

And I’m alone

All of the way

All of the way

Alone and Alive

You just have to go, go, go

Where I don’t know, know, know….

My PILGRIMAGE to be my AUTHENTIC SELF has taken me deeply into the UNKNOWN. This is what JOURNEY is about fellow SOUL BLOGGERS. I write to you as a changed PILGRIM unknown to MYSELF. Hallelujah Truth!

ABOUT THE MYSTERY OF THE HIJAB: Several years ago when increasing numbers of women from the Middle East started attending the Language Institute at Georgia Tech, where I teach ESL, I grew fascinated with the image of the hijab, the scarf the women use to conceal their hair, ears, and neck.

The women lingering in the hallways and leaning earnestly into their English language textbooks became a symbol of the UNKNOWN for me. At first, I knew very little about their countries of Libya, Jordan, Yemen, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and who they were in their roles as wives, mothers, daughters, students and professionals. Now, more informed about the “real” physical women, I still have allowed their beautifully covered heads and cloaked bodies to represent the MYSTERY of LIFE for me. For me, each woman in a hijab has become the symbol of the GREAT FEMININE MOTHER.

I allow GREAT FEMININE MOTHER to be present in my drawings and paintings, patient to learn from her. Where is SHE from? Where is SHE going? Where might I go with HER?

PAINTING FROM MEMORY of THE MYSTERY

FROM MEMORY. On one sunny Friday in October, a volunteer organization, The One Project, held an event to raise money to support breast cancer research. Created by international students at the Georgia Tech Language Institute, The One Project sold pink t-shirts, the breast cancer foundation’s color, painted faces, and threw pies at instructors who had collected more than fifty dollars each.

Many photos were being taken on that lovely fall day. I watched as a group of women in hijabs gathered on a picnic table, fascinated by the array of colors and fabric. Then to my great delight, one woman opened a white umbrella! The diffused light floated like gauze over the pink adorned women. I was entranced and had to “copy” the image by drawing and painting it that weekend!

GEORGIA TECH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE STUDENTS, OCTOBER 2011

THE PHOTO: On Monday at the GT Language Institute, I implored the student who had taken the photos on her cell phone to email me one of the photos—which she did. I have altered the image in photoshop to obscure the women’s identity in order to give them privacy. A side effect of asking this young hijabbed woman to send me the photo was that we had an electric discussion about making art! She draws! She was hungry to talk about her love of using graphite to depict everything around her. The next day, seeking me out, she flipped open her cell phone to show me an image of her room that she had drawn since our discussion! Hallelujah for ART, the universal language!

THE IMAGE FROM THE PHOTO. Oh GREAT FEMININE MYSTERY—where is your ESSENCE when seen directly, as I witness you in the photo?

PAINTING THE MYSTERY FROM A PHOTO

As I worked on creating a second image while looking at the photo of these women in hijabs, I allowed myself to experience their “hands”—something that was not in my first image. I decided to omit the sunglass and jeans and open smiled mouths.

After this painting was completed, I surmised that I like better painting from my memory….after all the ESSENCE of the GREAT MYSTERY is not physical…SHE is a feeling, a thought, a moment in time. Both EPHEMERAL and INFINITE.

Read my other blogs related to Women in Hijabs:

• Gasper of the Great Mystery
• I Never Thought the Burka Would Seduce Me
• This I Believe: Creativity Transforms
• That Something Other: The Mystery of the Hijab

The Impossible Dream Lyrics

To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest ...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

--Lyrics by Joe Darion

IS THE MYSTERY UNREACHABLE?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE’S RAISON D’ETRE: SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION AND A PASSION FOR ART!

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: READY FOR SCIENCE AND ART

ARTISTIC ASSISTANT: Paleontologist Barbie has a strong aesthetic sense and helps Hallelujah Truth in her studio when she is not out on the road finding her next fossil.

HALLELUJAH for unexpected relationships! HALLELUJAH once again for SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION and ART united that brings CURIOUS SOULS together! As recent as last December, my Chiboogamoo and I had a new curiosity move into our lives in the form of PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE! Since then both my Chiboogamoo and I have been happily collaborating with her in our respective CREATIVE areas. Upon her return to Decatur, Georgia, USA, from the east coast of Australia with my Chiboogamoo, she delighted me in agreeing to do this interview.

OAXCAN DINOSAUR WOOD CARVING: Paleontologist Barbie suggested I use this wood carving of a dinosaur from Mexico. Here she is explaining the way theropods threaten their prey.

HALLELUJAH: Why paleontology? Specifically ichnology?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Sure I’m an ichnologist but that is part of being a good paleontologist.

HALLELUJAH: Okay, but then why paleontology?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Paleontology is probably the most awesome science ever. You don’t need a lot of equipment, a lot of research money, or a lot of research assistants. You can just go out there and do it.

HALLELUJAH: But you do have a fascination with the past?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Of course I do. Who wouldn’t be fascinated with a 4.0 billion year history of life and how it evolved over time!

HALLELUJAH: I admire your SPIRIT and ENTHUSIASM. What drives you? What is at the SOURCE of your PASSION?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: CURIOSITY. Every day when I go into the field to look at fossils I WONDER what I am going to find.

LEADING THE WAY ON THE ROAD: Paleontologist Barbie, filled with excitement, stares out the road south of Winton, to the world-famous dinosaur tracksite at Lark Quarry. She has been looking forward to seeing these dinosaur tracks for a long time! (Photo and Caption by Chiboogamoo) See Chiboogamoo's blog entry about Lark Quarry. I also wrote about Lark Quarry in a previous blog entry about how scientists need to "re-envision" the stories they tell about the past.

 

HALLELUJAH: Can you give me an example?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Well, as you know, I just got back from a trip to Australia and I thought that the fossils there were wonderful because some were similar to what I had seen in North America but some were different. For example, the Cretaceous rocks formed in marine environments of Australia and North America both had a clam named Inoceramus and many ammonites. But these same rocks hold the remains of very different marine reptiles, such as Kronosaurus in Australia, but Mosasaurus in North America. Isn’t that cool?!

HALLELUJAH: So you are from the United States?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: I like to think of myself as a citizen of the world.

HALLELUJAH: What do you mean by that?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE:  I think paleontology is a universal science that crosses all boundaries of gender, ethnicity, and nationality. Anyone can do paleontology if they have the passion for it, which I do.

HALLELUJAH: What is the most exciting thing you’ve done in your paleontological career so far?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Unlike math, that question is hard.

HALLELUJAH: Why?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Because right now, everything paleontological is exciting to me, and I don’t see that excitement going away very soon. Each fossil is interesting. Each fossil is a potential discovery. I believe every fossil should engage us.

HALLELUJAH: Can you share with my readers of my blog, COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH, when you started collaborating with Chiboogamoo and subsequently fell in love with ART as well?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Chiboogamoo had been a long time admirer of my work and the research I’ve done in various parts of the world. He and Andy Rindsberg invited me to northwest Georgia to look at Ordovician and Silurian rocks because they wanted to get an outside perspective on the rocks and fossils they had studied there for a long time.

TRILOBITES AND BARBIE: Paleontologist Barbie measures the width of Trichophycus, a trilobite burrow preserved in Ordovician rocks (440 million years old) of northwest Georgia.

SERVING AS SCALE FOR GEOLOGICAL PERIODS: Paleontologist Barbie correctly identifies the Ordovician-Silurian boundary here, an unconformity dated at about 443 million years ago. Silurian sandstone above, Ordovician shale below. (Photos and Captions by Chiboogamoo)

HALLELUJAH: Did you contribute anything to the work they did in the field that day?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Yes! We had an in-depth discussion about trilobites, which are only evident there through their trace fossils. We also found a trace fossil of a starfish that was resting on the sea bottom about 440 million years ago.

HALLELUJAH: Wow! And it really looked like a starfish, didn’t it! Now, can you explain how you were assisting Chiboogamoo in Australia?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: I was invited to go on the field trip to the outback of Queensland to assist him and his students from Emory University. It was thrilling to be there with such enthusiastic young, potential paleontologists! But I was also aware of how I was serving as a role model for them.

HALLELUJAH: I saw the photo of you gripped in the jaws of an ancient whale. Do you think that was being a good role model?

SERVING AS A ROLE MODEL: While in Melbourne, Victoria, it was time for Paleontologist Barbie to examine some fossils and fossil replicas in Museum Victoria. “Looks like a skull cast of Dorudon, an early whale from the Eocene Epoch!” Here she looks at the spacing between the teeth toward the front of the skull. “This is the sort of functional morphology that can provide more than a few insights on its diet,” she assures us. Who could dispute her? Paleontologist Barbie, while investigating bite forces in Dorudon, demonstrates yet again why she is the honey badger of paleontologists, totally fearless and unstoppable in her pursuit of scientific knowledge. (Photo and Caption by Chiboogamoo)

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: I wanted to show them that I was fearless about learning paleontology, and that I’m willing to go to the extreme to find out the truth of evolution.

HALLELUJAH: How do you do that in the jaws of a fossil whale?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Sometimes you have to put yourself in the place of ancient prey, then you will understand how those extinct animals behaved.

HALLELUJAH: What does the future of paleontology hold for you?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: I see more travel to see more rocks and fossils from many places and many ages.

HALLELUJAH: What are your tips for successful fieldwork?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Attire is extremely important. Notice I have a field hat that I wear at all times to keep the weather off my head. But I also wear light, loose-fitting clothing, and of course, proper boots.

HALLEUJAH: I notice that you are barefoot in some of Chiboogamoo’s field photographs.

TRACKING TURKEYS ON CUMBERLAND: Here, Paleontologist Barbie spots tracks made in dune sands by a wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), which serve as excellent analogues for small theropod dinosaur tracks that were also made in dune environments during the Mesozoic Era. (Photo and Caption by Chiboogamoo)

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Oh yes! Those were taken on Cumberland Island along the coast of Georgia, when Chiboogamoo and I were tracking wild turkeys, using them as analogs for dinosaurs. I found it easier to track these animals in the sand without needing to take the sand out of my boots. It also felt really good on my feet, but I don’t recommend it for amateurs.

HALLEUJAH: You are aware that Chiboogamoo uses you for geological scale in his photographs. If you could use any person, animal, or thing for geological scale in your photographs of fossils in situ, what would you like to use?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Probably a Brunton compass. Every geologist knows the size of one. For laughs, I would like to use a GI Joe—they’re cute dolls. For all my scientific proclivities, I’m still a regular gal.

HALLELUJAH: I would like to ask you a few SPIRITUAL ART questions—about your JOURNEY. How would you describe your JOURNEY?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Early in my life, I felt boxed in. But once liberated from that box confining me in my abilities, I felt I could travel anywhere. Stow away in someone’s luggage and be somewhere at once instantly. Like the way I’ve accompanied your Chiboogamoo.

HALLELUJAH: How do you define AUTHENTICITY?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: People have often accused me of being too artificial. Maybe even plastic, but I like to think that I have a real place in the world and can contribute in a more real way then those people who say I am inanimate. REAL is a desire to learn and share that knowledge. Like the way I have collaborated with your husband Chiboogamoo.

HALLELUJAH: How would you define SPIRITUALITY?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Every fossil has a spirit of the living animal or plant, and I feel like it is my job as a paleontologist to divine that spirit.

PERSISTENT CURIOSITY DIVINING THE SPIRIT: The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Centre has a large fossil-preparation lab, so Paleontologist Barbie took full advantage of this by learning more about bone preparation from one of their expert preparators, Freddy Hill. Heeding all warnings from Australia’s Occupational Health & Safety, Paleontologist Barbie gets up close and personal with this dinosaur bone while it’s being prepared. (Photo and Caption by Chiboogamoo)

HALLELUJAH: How does SPIRITUALITY relate or impact your understanding of paleontology?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE: Knowing that life is all connected through evolutionary heritage gives me great insight into the spirit that runs through all living things.

HALLELUJAH: Do you have a SOUL?

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE:  That’s a really tough question to answer. Most people say I do not. But I like to think my soul is based on a quest for knowledge while having fun. I do think it’s important to keep smiling no matter what.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Hallelujah to forward thinking DOLLS and the PALEONTOLOGISTS who collaborate with them and understand their significant contributions! It is with immense love and appreciation that I acknowledge my husband Chiboogamoo for his work with PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE and for documenting their work together. I recognize PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE for spending time with me, HALLELUJAH TRUTH, and for delving into drawing, painting, and observing ART with the same enthusiasm that she has expressed towards her fossil work.

THE ARTIST AND THE SCIENTISTS: After her Queensland fieldwork is finished, Paleontologist Barbie goes to Victoria, Australia. Here she is thrilled to meet paleontologists Patricia Vickers-Rich and Tom Rich, as well as famed paleontological artist Peter Trusler. Likewise impressed with her, they give her an autographed copy of their new book, “The Artist and the Scientists” (Cambridge University Press). (Photo and Caption by Chiboogamoo)

MODELING FOR SKETCH CRAWL: Paleontologist Barbie participated in the international Sketchcrawl along with  the Women's Caucus for Arts of Georgia on July 23, 2011 at the Atlanta Water Gardens. (Photo by Chiboogamoo)

That’s it for COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH! Soul blog with me about your experiences with PALEONTOLOGY, PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE, and ART.