#REVERB12 (Day 17): Did you make a difference to one person in 2012? How?

THE ETERNAL WHEEL OF HOPE.  I know that we as individuals make a difference in each other's lives. For Day 16 of #Reverb12, I wrote about people who inspired me (see this blog). At the same time, I pray that I make a difference in other people's lives like YOURS but will leave it to YOU to acknowledge the gifts I have given YOU. (See the blog I wrote lessons learned regarding mentoring.) I HOPE that my art and musings have impacted YOUR lives in some positive way!(art by Hallelujah Truth)

#REVERB12 (Day 17) PROMPT: Think of one person whose life you made a difference to in 2012. What did you gain from this? How will you continue to make a difference in 2013?

It is my MISSION as a joyful ART PILGRIM BLOGGER to connect and share my ART and reflections with LIKE-MINDED SOULS like YOU. If you are here reading this entry today, perhaps I have made a difference in your life. If so, let me know how. 

THE PROCESS OF HEALING: MOURNING LOSS THROUGH DAILY DRAWING

Two weeks ago Misha passed away out of my arms into the universe (Read blog entry: Diminished by One: The Death of a Beloved Feline). He cannot be cuddled anymore. As I wake to do my daily drawings, I am present to my loss of his persistence presence. No cat companion to feed, to comb, to converse with, to let out, nor to sit next to as I draw. His ashes are beside me now (Read blog entry: Dead Finish to Misha's Life).

As I begin to draw, I don’t think too deeply. I don’t judge myself for my continued need to commune with Misha (NOT GOOD, NOT BAD, JUST IS). I ask him and myself how we want to be conveyed. My palette is limited to 9 inches by 12 inches and about 20 watercolor pencils.

This blog begins after the crematorium’s hot fires burnished Misha into a bright shining star in my HEART and MEMORY.

RESTING IN PEACE (Drawn November 10, 2011). Two mornings after Misha’s cremation at Paws, Whiskers and Wags: Your Pet Crematorium, I drew this serene image of Misha sleeping in a bed of INFINITE space. My hand reaches toward him touching, releasing, and touching again. The flowers are scattered from my crown of flowers, multiplying and spinning in time with Misha. I found great comfort in seeing this image emerge. Wandjina (Creation God and a symbol for my animus) reaches out to assist in Misha’s JOURNEY.

OH MY LOVE (Drawn November 11, 2011). Yes, Misha, I will dance with you.  You are bigger than me and so alive in the way I imagine you. Yes, I will dance with you. And for now, I will not mourn but dance!

MY BIG BIG BABY (Drawn November 12, 2011). I  am so in love with you. You are my ETERNAL baby. In your FINAL years, you no longer struggled in my arms. Yielding replaced youthful resistance to leap and bound. As I held you for what felt like INFINITY, we stared into each other’s eyes, UNITED.

INNER-TWINED, INNER-THOUGHTS, INNER-BEING (Drawn November 13, 2011). Is it possible that while physical loss is FINITE, SPIRITUAL CONNECTION is INFINITE?

HELD: IN SPACE AND TIME ALL THINGS CHANGE (Drawn November 14, 2011). The GREAT exchange! BEING comforted by the BEINGNESS of Misha.

PROCESS OF EXPERIENCING FELINE LOSS (Drawn November 15, 2011).  Being present to my loss. NOT GOOD, NOT BAD, JUST IS….

SADNESS AT TIME OF PARTING (Drawn November 16, 2011).This image surprised me…how sad our expressions are. Even though I used green in the background to signal  CHANGE, GROWTH, NEW DIRECTION, I discovered the sadness existing in my heart about the CHANGE I cannot control—the need to accept DEATH, SEPARATION, and LOSS. The LOSS of Misha has intersected with ALL the LOSSES in my life.

DANCE? LET GO? NOT YET!  (Drawn November 17, 2011). Almost two weeks into my PROCESS of HEALING, I realized that MOURNING is not fast.  Today, I discovered the “hidden contract” I had made with myself! Here is the contract: 1) Draw every day being present to Misha’s death. 2) Do not judge—not good, not bad, just. 3) Check for healing, expecting the “drawing meditation” to work like an antibiotic—quick recovery! I feel perplexed! I had tricked myself into thinking I could HEAL myself with expediency by “striving” conscientiously!

How I love ART and the way my inner-and outer-self  speak to one another, integrating my woes and joys. I give myself permission to let my ART be what I  need it to be! I give myself permission to take TIME to HEAL and to SEE what is the next thing I need.

HONORABLE MENTION: My dear dear Chiboogamoo, the brilliant paleontologist that he is wrote a wonderful tribute to our beloved feline using his ichnological insight. His tribute, "Cat Ichnology: The Marks of Misha," can be found on a charming and engaging blog, Geokittehs, which is dedicated to the teaching of geology through the use of--yes--cats! I took this photo in December 2010. Chiboogamoo was teaching our feline companion about evolution from his course with the Teaching Company, "Major Transitions in Evolution."

PERSISTENT PERMISSIVE PERMANENT SOULMATE
photo by Chiboogamoo

DEAD FINISH TO MISHA’S LIFE: SAYING A MORE FINAL FAREWELL AT THE PET CREMATORIUM

TAKING FLIGHT? The Tuesday morning before we left for the pet crematorium, Paws, Whiskers & Wags, I did my ritual morning drawing. Wanting to summon a transition in the way I was thinking about my separation with Misha, I imagined him with “angel” wings, taking flight and being supervised by the masculine part of my psyche, Wandjina. I have abstracted my Hallelujah  Truth self even more. You can only see my hand and the top of my head. Boo hoo….I did not experience a “shift” in a way of thinking.

For us saying good-bye on Saturday to our feline companion Misha did not end with the visit to the vet clinic and watching the veterinarian inject him with what would cause his immediate death. I had decided that I wanted Misha cremated and that was to take place three days later on a Tuesday morning, almost three miles east of Decatur on Ponce de Leon at Paws, Whiskers & Wags: Your Pet Crematory.

I had awakened the Monday morning after Misha’s death with an unnerving dream of his returning to me and Chiboogamoo. Because of the cool fall morning, he was doing the customary snuggling under our covers with us. At first, I was delighted. Then I discovered that my dream Misha was still in pain, his tumor even larger, but he could not leave us. I felt the agony all over again of needing to help him die.  I woke up. The hour was early—before 5:00 am. I drew another picture of Misha and me. Four hours later,  Paws, Whiskers & Wags called me to arrange Misha’s cremation.

ASHES to ASHES. Anticipating Misha’s cremation, I began by drawing him in black, grays, and browns. Still feeling very connected, I draw my Hallelujah Truth-self next to him, our eyes aligned, seeing the world together, but now from two different perspectives (death and life). Our background is brown, expressing the end of a growing cycle. The leaves of my flower diadem are also brown. There is a DEAD FINISH to Misha’s life.

 I found out I had crematorium options! I could see Misha one more time! He had not already become ASHES! Hallelujah! He was not only a phantom in my dreams nor only an image in my drawings, but Misha was also still inhabiting this earth in his physical body. The Paws, Whiskers & Wags employee assured me that it would not be too awful to see him one more time. This announcement lead to my learning more about the process of having one’s pet cremated.

After we left Misha at Village Vets, he was tagged with a tracking device so that he could be located if the need arose. I also learned that he had been refrigerated and still looked as good as he did at his death. Waiting in the mourning room of Paws, Whiskers & Wags, Chiboogamoo and I received a comforting announcement from the pet crematorium employee.  “Misha’s a beautiful animal,” she exclaimed  as she wheeled him in where we were waiting to see him one last time. Indeed, Misha looked at peace. His eyes were now shut, and his body had been carefully shaped into a restful sleep position with his paws  tucked gently towards his chest and his head ever so slightly curved in. He WAS beautiful!

Chiboogamoo and I were given time to spend with him before we followed him into the crematorium room. The man who was about to cremate Misha, came forward and hugged us! Oh! Our grief was so honored and respected. The top was put on the cardboard box that entombed Misha’s body. Then the steel table was moved to the front of the burning chamber and slid in. We watched as the bottom of Misha’s cardboard box burst into flames. The steel door slowly closed down from the top like the curtain coming down in a theatre.  It was the end of the wonderful life performance of dear, dear Misha. His cremation would take an hour.

I wrote most of this blog entry as Chiboogamoo and I waited in the crematory’s mourning room. We held hands and expressed the newfound peace we had acquired by participating in Misha’s cremation. We felt closure. Relief comes from knowing where Misha is. I took him home in a cedar box, and his ashes are in front of me as I finish this blog entry.

ROSE PETALS AND ASHES. We let Misha (now ashes in the cedar box) stay out in the courtyard all day underneath rose petals, a gift from fellow feline worshipper Jacq Marie. Incense and candles honor his spirit.

Cremation isn’t cheap—costing over 150 dollars. I feel slightly guilty about spending money on a deceased pet when there are so many living animals that need food and shelter. Yet as a condo dweller without a yard to bury our beloved feline, I could not bear for him to disappear entirely from my surroundings. I am thankful that such a humane business as Paws, Whiskers & Wags exists to comfort human sorrow over the loss of an animal companion. Perhaps having gone through this experience with Misha will give us courage to take on a new family feline in the future, knowing that the end can be made bearable.

Hallelujah Friends, Family, and Felines! When the bell tolls for thee….may you be loved and helped along to the next dimension as we were with Misha. That’s Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me about how you said good-bye to your beloved feline family member.

FIRE, REBIRTH, DREAMS. Dear Pilgrims, I accept my dreams and integrate them with my daily drawings. Last night, I dreamed I was on a journey with Chiboogamoo. We were leading his students from Environmental Studies on a field trip. We came to a dip in a dirt path. I went first and on my way, I saw a snake spiraling down into the steep turn of the pathway. As I moved forward, a second snake was moving toward me. Chiboogamoo and the students had stopped to examine something above me. I was alone on the deep spiraling path with the snakes. The dream ended. This morning I welcomed the snakes into my drawing. I drew Misha again in a spiral. This time the spiral is the color of the flames that I saw engulfing Misha’s cardboard box at the crematorium, and not purple, the color of mourning. Pilgrims! I have worked with snakes before in my dreams and they symbolize for me such ideas as FERTILITY, REBIRTH, and INFINITY. Seeing the transition of Misha’s body into ashes, I now feel open to breathe. Breathing ensures LIFE. I am here now, with my feelings and the remains of Misha. I believe ART HEALS. ART MOVES US FORWARD. I believe DREAMS give us a way to integrate and to become whole. I believe FIRE PURIFIES. I will keep breathing, making art, and dreaming. Cheers to my dear Misha!

IN THE WOMAN’S BOAT: JOURNEYING IN MEMORY AND CELEBRATION OF SALLY WYLDE

TOUCHING THE WATERS: In the Woman's Boat (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Dear PILGRIMS welcome to the WOMAN’S BOAT. Climb aboard our “boats” and JOURNEY with us to commune with our dear FELLOW PILGRIM Sally Wylde, who died last year at this time. We miss her here on MOTHER EARTH, for Sally was one of us—CREATIVE SPIRIT, ARTIST, and SEEKER of the GREAT MYSTERY.

SALLY WYLDE

We SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS respond to LIFE’S CHALLENGES—physical death being one of the greatest challenges of them all—by making ART.  Yes, it is healing to CREATE from the SOURCE—the very act of digging deep into our SOULS and SEEING what is there asking to be EXPRESSED. We chose to honor Sally by responding to Toni Childs' album, “The Woman’s Boat,” since this was the music Sally used in her performance, “The Lump Journey,” which was her creative response to being diagnosed with breast cancer. That was three years ago.  

At that time, we ART PILGRIMS, Robey Tapp, Jesse Bathrick, and me, Hallelujah Truth, danced weekly with Sally as she symbolically structured her LIFE into a dramatic community performance. In our circle of writers and visual artists, we floated in and out of Sally’s studio and backyard yearning to express both the dark and bright aspects of our JOURNEYS while moving to songs in “The Woman’s Boat,” a collection of songs expressing the complexity of women’s lives from birth to death. Together, in our circle of women, we were

…in the woman’s boat

on the woman’s sea…

In the months following the performance of “The Lump Journey,” we began our group, SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS and were joined by Cecelia Kane (featured in my first SAP interview). How befitting then for us to revisit the epic lyrics of “The Woman’s Boat,” and to BE PRESENT with Sally on her JOURNEY in the UNKNOWN. PILGRIMS! We have one another ALWAYS—in our HEARTS, IMAGINATIONS, and the UNIVERSE BEYOND this bountiful EARTH.

We SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS (Robey Tapp, Cecelia Kane, Jesse Bathrick, and me, Hallelujah Truth) have made ART to connect with SALLY on the first anniversary of her death. Each us has made our own version of “THE WOMAN’S BOAT” for you.  JOURNEY with OUR SOULS to visit Sally! Hallelujah!

ROBEY TAPP

CECELIA KANE

CECELIA KANE WRITES: These small paintings and drawings are dedicated to the life and memory of my friend, Sally Wylde. Each boat encounters something dark and menacing below the surface, on a separate plane or inside itself.

They have been inspired by Toni Childs’ song “The Woman’s Boat, and Rumi’s 13^th century poem below. These little boats make their appearance in response to  Ruth Schowalter’s  (Hallelujah Truth) vision of  a creative response on the first anniversary of Sally’s death.

Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,

No light and no land anywhere,

Cloudcover thick. I try to stay

Just above the surface, yet I’m already under

And living within the ocean.

JESSE BATHRICK

HALLELUJAH TRUTH

RIPE IN THE JOURNEY: When I began to draw my WOMAN'S BOAT, I let my SOUL direct me. How surprised I was that I created a ripe fruit, a red hole, a vessel for JOURNEYING on the WATERS of LIFE and AFTERLIFE! HALLELUJAH!

Well it’s time to say goodbye

And all the things we’ve said and cried

Through our lives

You will be on my lips

It’ll be a long time coming, boy

Till we meet again

Into the earth we go and we dive

Into the spirit world

Where our hearts lie

We go down into the sea

Of eternal life….

Lyrics from Toni Child’s “Long Time Coming” on the album “The Woman’s Boat”

SALLY DANCING: In her performance, Sally danced in celebration to the lyrics: "How do you love? And how do care? And how do you live and believe?" Good, good questions!

Soul Blog with me at COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH. ART MATTERS. ART HEALS. ART CONNECTS.

SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM INTERVIEW#3: KAREN PHILLIPS—PURE VOICE IN ACT OF CREATING ART, AN INSTANCE OF BEING

ARTIST KAREN PHILLIPS Photo by Ruth Schowalter

Hallelujah for FELLOW ART PILGRIMS! Hallelujah for KAREN PHILLIPS, visual artist, lover of color and texture! On a coolish Sunday in the month of March, Karen and I huddled in Sycamore Gallery Place in Decatur, Georgia, where we both have studios, and discussed her SPIRITUAL and ARTISTIC JOURNEY.

As a result, I am delighted to offer to you, dear SOUL BLOGGER, the third SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM INTERVIEW with KAREN PHILLPS on my blog: COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH (See SAP Interview 1 with Cecelia Kane and SAP Interview 2 with Robey Tapp)!

HALLELUJAH: Give me your personal definition of ART.

KAREN: Art is a conversation between souls. Art is whatever you perceive to be art, a personal perception.

HALLELUJAH: Tell me about this conversation between SOULS.

KAREN: The artist is expressing something. The person looking at the artist’s work is viewing that expression, and it is a dialogue that is going on between the two of them. Art is a dialogue.

It used to be that art was in this “box.” Art was functional or religious in nature. It is so much more open then it used to be.

HALLELUJAH: What about you, Karen, and you, the ARTIST—do you have a conversation?

KAREN: There is no separation. My art is my outlet for expressing what I see and for what I am feeling. Before I painted, I wrote. I have always had urges to create something. The struggle was to find that outlet.

HALLELUJAH: Tell me a little bit about the struggle.

KAREN: My mother is an artist. When I was a kid, I watched her. She was always looking at things in a different way. For example, she would see a rock, and see a face in the rock and paint what she saw. We would go to a store and look at things, she would say, “You could make that.” I learned how to see possibilities. From my father I learned the beauty of words, of reading poetry and a love of learning.

MOTHER LOVE: I was simply playing with shapes, but the result gives me this feeling of being hugged and comforted.

HALLELUJAH: And high school was part your creative development…

KAREN: High school was rough for me. I was taking “remedial” English because I hadn’t done well on a test that I didn’t care about, but I turned it into a creative writing class. I got into science fiction and started writing it. There was nothing I could learn in the class, so I wrote every day and found it exciting. I would create stories in my mind on the bus before school. So this English class became an outlet.

After a year of college, I wanted to work and got into the corporate world.  I went through changes. I stopped writing. I stopped any kind of creative work. I got frustrated. I didn’t know why. When the frustration got tough, I would just write and write.

HALLELUJAH: You were definitely on a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMAGE, seeking…

KAREN: I was doing a lot of searching. I read a lot of self help books. They weren’t answering any questions. I eventually found a life coach who told me I was creative. I didn’t want to believe her. I had a background in computer programming. I loved science, biology and physiology. My mother was the creative one who could paint and draw. Not me.

HALLELUJAH: But did you listen to your creative coach?

KAREN: I took a graphic design class. We did all kinds of things. The last thing we did was to create a poster. I didn’t have a computer that could do large work, so I decided to paint a portion of it. Just think, at my job, I worked 60-70 hours a week. Then for this graphic design class, I was up all night painting my poster.

COLORS BLENDING: We are looking at wet paint and I was playing with the process of color drying in a gel medium and the center of it started to glow. This image no longer exists except in this photograph because when it dried the glow disappeared. It was like capturing the spark of joyous color.

I was painting stripes of color and the sun was coming up. I was in heaven. I thought it was graphic design that I was excited about, but it was the act of painting that was exciting. I experienced a sense of joy, a sense of coming home.

Following that experience, I took a lot of graphic design classes and got promoted. I loved helping clients clarify their visions and worked all hours of the day and night to bring these visions to fruition.

UNDERNEATH SERIES: This Underneath series began with doing exercises from one of Mary Todd Beam’s books. I extended the process. It took creating layers to prepare the surface for painting. I discovered the beauty of visual texture and expressed images from my childhood fascination with mountains and imagined dinosaurs. It brought me back to that wonder and expanded imagination.

At some point I felt the need to take fine art classes, but I ignored that urge. I continued working. At one point, I attended an Artist Conference Network (ACN) coffee, and I thought graphic design would be my creative outlet. I wasn’t an artist, so why would I join something like ACN?

HALLELUJAH: Wow! Why is it that we often ignore what we truly want to do? A SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM’S journey is not an easy one!

KAREN: In 2001, I started having problems with my back. I began limping. I was in shear agony, but I was determined to continue working. I had projects to do. What would happen if I weren’t there. I was giving my all to the company.

HALLELUJAH: If we don’t follow our HEARTS, there may be strong negative consequences.

KAREN: Yes….One day, I was trying to stand up in my little cubicle. I must have had an expression of pain on my face, and the human resources person saw me and sent me home. “We can’t have you working like this,” she said. I thought, OH NO I HAVE TO GO HOME!

HALLELUJAH: Someone else had to tell you that you were sick!

CONTEMPLATION: I watched a video with Robert Burridge just experimenting with shapes. The way he flung paint across the paper spoke to me. I wanted to try it. I started flinging paint on paper and letting my stream of consciousness flow.

KAREN: I had an MRI done and discovered I had a herniated disk. My life coach told me I needed to take disability and heal. But I was so focused on work—being a “worker bee.” So I focused on getting better. Walking and getting surgery, but surgery made everything worse.  I tried everything from acupuncture to hydrotherapy to get rid of the pain, but nothing worked.  In the meantime, I focused on being able to walk better in longer and longer spans.

Then I thought I would try painting, and I stayed with it this time. The drawback is that I could only paint 20 minutes a day, but I did that every day. I started painting a lot and very quickly. 

I was putting these paintings out on the lawn to dry. One day, I was picking them up and found money underneath them. After that, every time I painted, I started discovering positive things around me.

HALLELUJAH: Ahhh…a PILGRIM found how ART matters. ART heals. ART moves one forward!

KAREN: Yes! I started being open to being an artist. My life was changing. I became a member of ACN, where I would have to show my work. I was shaking in my boots and sweating. And that was even before the first time I had to show my work!

After the training we received in ACN, I began to choose to let people see the inner me. That’s how it was with my first solo show. I decided it was going to be a conversation between two souls.

“I’m sharing this with people,” I told myself. “We are going to have a great time.” I set up the exhibit area so I could have conversations with viewers. I had little cafe tables and chairs. People sat at them talking amongst themselves, I moved around talking with them. It made me want more conversations.

HALLELUJAH: So your earlier struggle to “become” a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM was resolved in creating conversations between SOULS—yours and the viewers?

KAREN: Yes. And I also ended my struggle to find words to express what I am feeling at the moment--texture and color.

HALLELUJAH: What is SPIRITUALITY to you?

KAREN: Spirituality. That’s a tough one for me because I’ve had all of these past experiences which I have left alone for awhile. Spirituality is the connection between everything. It’s that connectedness. It’s that connecting with. I believe that we are all one. So spirituality is connecting with that oneness, understanding it, and being it.

HALLELUJAH: What do you understand about that ONENESS?

KAREN: That it’s beyond words. That’s it’s everything. It is the action and inaction. It is love and not love. Oneness is beyond the words.

HALLELUJAH: How do you experience ONENESS?

KAREN: Silence.

HALLELUJAH: Tell me more about this SILENCE.

KAREN: it is the act of detachment. Being in the moment. Not being attached to anything. No expectations. Viewing what is. Seeing what is.

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

KAREN: Art is being in the moment and not being attached to the outcome. For example, let’s look at how I start a painting. I start by drawing lines. Getting into that space of letting things go. I draw a line, and it s not predetermined. It’s not what I want or don’t want. It’s shapes and circles—lines.

BLUE IN THE KEY OF RED: I was experimenting with painting on plastic, a nonabsorbent surface, watching the paint swim and blend and using salt to add texture. What resulted “wowed” me because the blue was so deep and the overall feeling was being in an underwater world.

Then it is spreading color onto the surface of the canvas. Letting it leave me. Combining other colors. This is a conversation of color, shape and movement and  using a lot of water. The way the colors smooth and blend—that is an act of creation. The act of creation is pure joy.

It is connecting with that oneness. And expressing it.

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

KAREN: It helps me stay connected to EVERYTHING, that basic being. (Karen lifts her hands, palms up, in the air on either side of her head and pauses.)

HALLELUJAH: How?

KAREN PHILLIPS: Posing in front of a recent painting at Sycamore Place Gallery in her studio. Photo by Ruth Schowalter

KAREN: It goes back to that conversation between two souls. I’m expressing the JOY of BEING! The JOY of CONNECTEDNESS. The JOY of ONENESS. It’s a stillness even though there is action in painting. There is a stillness.

HALLELUJAH: Earlier you spoke about finding that “good things” came from your ARTmaking.  Can you reflect about these “good things” now in terms of your current state of health?

KAREN: Let me talk about my last round of working professionally as a graphic designer. I was working fulltime and in ACN. I began to realize that I couldn’t multitask between graphic design and my art. Every time I set time aside to paint, I noticed that my job would encroach on my painting. I noticed this pattern.

At the same time, I was dating Wayne who asked me to marry him, and I was training to walk a marathon. I noticed that as I increased the distances I walked, I had to eat constantly about 12 times a day. I was drinking coffee like it was water. My work hours were getting insane. I was working 7 days a week. I kept trying to find solutions about my persistent hunger and need for caffeine. Doctors told me they couldn’t find what was wrong with me. Thyroid medication worked for a little while.  All the while, I had this strong desire to paint. It was getting stronger and stronger.

When things were going haywire at work, I was calm and could find solutions. I loved the rush and stress. In fact, I was addicted to it, but it wasn’t fulfilling me. At some point I wanted to say “no” to projects. I wanted to choose which projects I worked on and how to complete them. Yet I was supposed to give clients what they wanted—even if it was unrealistic.

At one point, I said no to a client and was strongly reprimanded by my boss. From that point on, I started to complain a lot. My situation felt insane. Finally, I went to my boss and told her I was having health issues and that I needed to work less. She told me I needed a note from the doctor. She wasn’t willing to work with me. I was crashing.

 My body was telling me to stop. I knew I needed to make that switch—to be an ARTIST—and get rid of this WORK-A-HOLIC!

HALLELUJAH: Then you really got sick, I remember. You couldn’t go to work. You couldn’t paint. You took your medications for pituitary problems and watched TV all day long. You were shut down by the GREAT MYSTERY.

KAREN: I had a calling, and I was ignoring that calling. Through the act of keeping my desire to paint silent and quelling it my body shut down. I was so worried about making money and being independent that I allowed myself to get so sick. Never again will I allow that to happen to my creativity.

HALLELUJAH: Hallelujah PILGRIM! Thank you for your testimony that ART HEALS! As you have SOJOURNED, who do you consider influential in the way you think, act, and make ART?

KAREN: While I was having health issues with my back and starting to paint, I found a book by Mary Todd Beam. Her images intrigued me. I couldn’t understand half of what she was talking about, but I found something I could try out. My first series, “The Underneath Series,” came from learning Beam’s technique of painting.

Joseph Campbell’s concept of home is also something influenced me. Now, I’m doing some inner work. And Campbell explains the stages and trials that the hero goes through. At one point, the hero must let go of everything.

HALLELUJAH: The hero’s JOURNEY is the ARTIST’s JOURNEY!

ESCAPE

KAREN: Yes, it is being ONE with ALL—everything and nothing. This is the journey to NIRVANA. The purest voice is the act of creating art.

HALLELUAH: Thank you for sharing your PURE VOICE with me Karen!

AT HOME: Karen Phillips in her backyard with Ella and Spencer, about a 3-mile drive from Sycamore Place Gallery. Photo by Ruth Schowalter

RED GREEN BLUE: Karen was inspired by a client’s commission to add red, green, and blue, to one of her images. "I still kept the flow of my process and then saw the colors sparkling. Color added another dimension to this conversation I was having with myself about shapes."

MORE ABOUT KAREN PHILLIPS: To see more of Karen's work, go to her WEBSITE. To follow what she is thinking and doing, go to her BLOG. To get news about her upcoming exhibits see her Facebook PAGE.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks to Sycamore Place Gallery, home to the studios of Karen Phillips and Hallelujah Truth (aka Ruth Schowalter) for providing a rich environment for us to work and do this interview. Loving appreciation to the first interviewees Spiritual Art Pilgrim Interviews 2011, Cecelia Kane and Robey Tapp, for setting an incredible precedent for the way artists can talk about their SOUL work. Huzzahs to husband Chiboogamoo for the technical support as well as the love he provides on this intriguing interview PATH. SOUL BLOG with me at COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH!