#REVERB11: LIMITS! HALLELUJAH FOR LEARNING HOW TO BE THE HONEY BADGER OF CREATIVITY!

LIMITS TO CREATIVITY? Observe the product resulting from collaboration with my beloved ichnologist husband Chiboogamoo! Creating a work of art based on a scientific idea is tricky business especially when done with one's spouse! This triptych, Holy Trinity of Ichnology, seriously challenged my sense of creative self! (A future blog will discuss the development of our collaborative relationship!)

#REVERB11 PROMPT (December 8): LIMITS: We often learn about our limits the hard way. Were there any limits you realized this past year? Alternately, what self-imposed limits were you able to move beyond this year? (From Carolyn Rubenstein's  blog: A Beautiful Ripple Effect)
Pilgrims! When Hallelujah meets limitations, boundaries, restrictions, dead ends, parameters, detours, cut-offs, she REJOICES! Yes, of course, the hallelujahs are preambled by squeaks and squeals like a delicate mouse finding herself trapped in a laboratory maze without potential rewards of moist crumbly treats. Then I summon the honey badger of CREATIVITY!In 2011, I traveled distances on my CREATIVE PATH, becoming a co-leader for the Atlanta Artist Conference Network, collaborating with Chiboogamoo for an art exhibit at Fernbank Museum of Natural History, leading a blogging workshop for a women's writing conference, and teaching three different English courses to international visiting scholars at the Language Institute of Georgia Tech. 

LIMITS TO MARIA THE HUTIA?: In the middle of two adult Bahamian hutias is Maria, the young hutia who inadvertently gets tossed out at sea and journeys far away from home. This image is the initial line drawing done in a size 5 micron pen before thickening lines with india ink and larger sized microns. Here Maria has succeeded in returning home to her parents. I feel such a parallel in my life with Maria the Hutia and  Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz--both stories of leaving home and returning to it. I love journey stories. During my own journey as an artist, I have confronted my "limitations" as a drawer. So I tell myself. Is this perception of my limitations TRUTH or ILLUSION? (art by Hallelujah Truth)

In addition to these CREATIVE high roads, which clearly invited huge IMAGINATIVE energy, I completed 90 percent of the illustrations for the children's book, The Misadventures of Maria the Hutia, and took on the coordination of getting this wonderful environmental conservation story by Ronald Shaklee into book form (publication to occur in 2012).All of the above projects were done in the LIFE of my CREATIVE MIND while drawing daily, teaching, blogging, and participating in the group Spiritual Art Pilgrims. Did I CONFRONT LIMITS? YESSSSSSSSSSSS! As I crashed into walls, I unwillingly dueled with my numerous saboteurs (see how I defined saboteurs in a #REVERB10 blog), which caused me to practice saying the honey badge mantra "honey badger don't care--nothing can stop the honey badger"!As 2011 comes to a close, I cannot proclaim that I "removed" any limits. What is the opposite of STOPPING? I can own that I "did the work." I kept GOING. I kept JOURNEYING because of my fascination with the UNKNOWN. In 2012, I have a heaping desire to become even more of the honey badger of CREATIVITY. 

THE LIMITS OF CONFRONTING SABOTEURS. 2011 has left me exhausted, exasperated, satisfied, tried and true, honey badger initiated, and ready to see what is next. This water color that I did in collaboration with Chiboogamoo challenged me all the way to its completion. I absolutely adored my husband's drawing of "imagined traces once sea level changes," which he enlarged so I could paint. Painting such a large piece of paper without a visual plan felt like it veered on disaster. Following my intuition over such an extended project took all of my guts. The project was humbling. But the honey badger "don't care" because there is always the next creative project looming! (photo by Chiboogamoo at Fernbank Museum of Natural History)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! Soul Blog with me and tell me about your CREATIVE JOURNEY and the limitations you have confronted, survived, rejoiced in and removed! What are you the honey badger of?

MOVING BEYOND LIMITS. I gasped with joy when I saw children stop to look at my painting, Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur. It was the first time I had seen children responding to my art! I love it that the little boy is scratching his head in thought! Look how one of the little girls slid to her knees to peer into my world of burrowing dinosaurs! It felt as if an old boundary had been eliminated! Children as viewers of my images! Wa Hoo!

Acknowledgments: Thank you Chiboogamoo for making the honey badger so present in my life! You are my little honey badger!

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