CULTIVATING AND DEPICTING SOUL: Image making and the daily creative practice

EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES of BEING THROUGH REPETITION. Who or what might I be? Where might I go? I draw daily to find out. Welcome to my soul depiction! (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for exploring new possibilities through a daily creative practice!  Hallelujah for repetition! Hallelujah for writing, dancing, playing, and making art to explore who or what I might be and where I might travel!

Just a few days ago I joined a new Facebook Group, Inspired Blogging, and am so delighted to meet a new group of bloggers, people I suspect I have much in common with. Social media has given me a way to connect with like-minded souls worldwide over the five-plus years I've been blogging, yet still I have yearned to find a solidified tribe with who I could "commune" deeply with.

Inspired Blogging, might be that Online Social Commune for me. Who knows? But it is definitely a possibility. I would like to know more about the person who created the group and launched it. And about the people she invited. The members write wonderful deep meaningful blog entries and leave heartfelt comments on each others blogs!

I learned about Inspired Blogging from a member in my own Facebook group, The Daily Creative Practice, a diverse group intensely creative souls, who I love dearly. Thank you Vickie for posting the link to your Inspired Blogging community.

A new possibility I'm exploring these days is that I may make a short animated film using the images I draw each morning as part of my meditation for my "daily creative practice." Several years ago, Spencer Moon encouraged me to learn about animation and started mentoring me in film making; however, at that time, I did not have a compelling story to tell, and I was still working my day job at Georgia Tech as an ESL instructor. My nerves were all in a jangle!

Since then, ocean waves of life events have swept me into new worlds of being, and I have been documenting my journey through the cultivation and consistent image making depicting my soul. 

Ah ha! I bet I have surprised you! That is such a huge pronouncement to make! What does a soul look like? And how do we understand it?

My answer to that? A daily creative practice, one that might be grounded in repetition. For years, I journaled and then refined the technique by practicing the "morning pages" Julia Cameron style in The Artist's Way. 

 "Morning pages" is a writing practice, one founded on the belief that writing upon waking could help one secure thoughts, ideas, and images closely connected to the self, the subconscious, and the intelligent stuff of dreams. As I honored my desires to express my ideas in visual images instead of words, my morning pages became pictures instead of words.

And in the same way, that Julia Cameron gives writers of the morning pages permission to repeat words and phrases each day as they write until something new emerges, I repeat my images with loving dedication until something new pops up.  

And in the same way that Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones urges us not to cross out our words in free writing but to gently embrace them in parentheses, I don't cross out or erase my images. They are what they are! They are soul stuff.

Drawing each day for about five years now has cultivated my vision. I can see my soul and am showing you one small aspect of me here in these images right here! 

And now, the idea of making an animated short film no longer seems as daunting as it did three years ago. There is a great deal I need to know. But I now know that I would it would be about! Here's the working title: GENESIS OF HALLELUJAH TRUTH!
 
That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and share your possibilities! What are you exploring you might be or a place you might go?

TRYING A NEW MEDIUM: HALLELUJAH TRUTH GIVING BIRTH TO A MOVIE?

ENVISIONING A HALLELUJAH TRUTH ANIMATION, art by Hallelujah Truth

Hallelujah PILGRIMS! As a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM, life offers turns in the road, new ideas, and possibilities! To share the JOURNEY with other artists, writers, performers--MAGICIANS--is electrifying! Spencer Moon, author of three books on film, including his memoir, Reel Talk, has walked the creative path with me in Artist Conference Network. Most recently, he has encouraged me to try something REALLY NEW for me....making a movie!


After going to the Pine Lake Art Salon, in Pine Lake, Georgia, to hear Spencer read from Reel Talk, I wrote a blog celebrating the event. In our dynamic exchanges around the Reel Talk blog entry, Spencer asked me: "Have you ever thought about making a movie using your images?" The answer was, "No." But his question started me thinking, "Why not?"


In ongoing communications with Spencer, he encouraged me, "You have a facility with words and images--that's what movies are about. Why not make a movie?" Hallelujah! I am a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM on a JOURNEY. My character Hallelujah has been searching for an adventure...could I make an animation?


When I asked Spencer to tell me more of what he had in mind about me making a movie, he had a wonderful surprise for me--the first two lessons of ten about how to begin making a movie! Spencer was volunteering to MENTOR Hallelujah Truth! 


The first two lessons Spencer gave me include becoming familiar with the kind of animation I like and analyzing my reasons for liking it. Spencer had generously named several animations for me to study along with how to locate them on the internet. Then he told me to start identifying computer programs for animation and to start looking for animators to have conversations with.


Am I frightened about who I might be on this new JOURNEY? Can I walk this way and make an animation? A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step! Let's see where this SOJOURN with Spencer, writer, educator, and film-maker will take me.


That's Coffee with Halllelujah. Soul Blog with me and tell me where your JOURNEY is taking you. Hallelujah for the magic of friendship, sojourn, and creativity! Thank you Spencer Moon, Hallelujah Truth Mentor!

UNIVERSE UNFOLDING FROM HALLELUJAH. Brainstorming for an idea about a movie I would like to tell. From a drawing perspective, it would be FUN to begin with a dot, like a small ball of energy, and to have that energy explode into Hallelujah. A creation myth following the path of stars! Now, that is filled with exciting Hallelujah imagery!