A sneak peak at the cover of my book!

Sometime next year look for my Monotype of the day book, “the inner life of the artist”! It will cover the whole 900 hundred days of the project and contain images, my writing, and 30 poems from some of my favorite poets such as Mary Oliver and Rumi. I’ll keep you posted!

reflection, Monotype of the Day Monday

Well, it turns out that I fractured my elbow. It’s funny how we have to keep learning the same lessons over and over. I was walking too fast and pushing myself and I know better than to do that. This situation could suck, but I am making it into an opportunity. It is my usual way to be down on myself when these things happen. This time though I am choosing to be kind to myself. This is a muscle I need to develop. I am three weeks in a sling and although it’s very limiting, my life is still happening. I’m not going to let this time pass by. I need two hands to do most things so I’m thinking outside of the box I'm learning new ways. For instance, I figured out how to dictate this post and I am pivoting from making sculpture to painting. It was a bit of a challenge to do tonight’s print but I got it done and I enjoyed it. One foot in front of the other and you’ll be surprised how much gets done. Poem below the title.

reflection
2/8/21
Monotype of the Day Monday

Something about uncontainable Love
By Dorothy Walters

Often it is the ocean itself
that speaks in its roiling voice
its thunderous tongue.

What it is saying
I have listened to for years,
as it crackles and whips,
or whispers in its silken tones.

Even now I am not sure of its message,
its assaults of thrill and boom
shattering the rocks
into flares of light.

Something about Mystery,
something about uncontainable
Love.

From A Cloth of Fine Gold by https://amzn.to/3jw1Yq6

at sea, Monotype Monday

Welcome to February! I don't know about you, but the pandemic has dissolved my sense of time and I find it challenging to remember which day it is. It doesn't help that last week I took a fall while walking and injured my elbow a lot. It's on the mend, but it's kept me inside and relatively sedentary all week. It reminds me how fragile and fleeting life is. This is not depressing, it's a beautiful and inescapable truth. Good times must be seized and squeezed for every drop. I feel at sea right now without the structure of my daily posts or the ability to work as I'd like. But as my print shows, there is much richness in the sea. Structure and work will return soon enough. For now my fragile boat holds it's steady course. (Poem below the title)

at sea 2/1/21 Monotype of the Day Monday

The Ocean Moving All Night
By Rumi Trans. Coleman Barks & John Moyne

Stay with us. Don't sink to the bottom
like a fish going to sleep.
Be with the ocean moving steadily all night,
not scattered like a rainstorm.

The spring we're looking for
is somewhere in this murkiness.
See the night-lights up there traveling together,
the candle awake in its gold dish.

Don't slide into the cracks of the ground like spilled mercury.
When the full moon comes out, look around.

From Open Secret https://amzn.to/31EwLZ2

veiled, Monotype of the Day Monday

I'm beginning to catch my breath. I didn't realize how depleted I was from my Monotype of the Day Project. I may need another week or two before I can get back into full swing. In the meantime the unsexy part of being an artist, things that must be written about, not shown are moving forward. To find out more, become a Patreon subscriber (https://www.patreon.com/sybilarchibald). See you next week! (Poem below the title)

veiled
1/18/21
Monotype of the Day Monday

In the Stream
By Dogen, Trans. Heine

In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form
Casts no reflection.

From The Zen Poetry of Dogen https://amzn.to/2M7MoVm

Monotype of the Day Monday, transference

The studio is in gestation mode and I've been working hard on my monotype book this week. Going over all the poems posted during the project is a joy. One that struck me particularly today below the title.

Transference
1/11/21
Monotype of the Day Monday

What Harbinger?
Denise Levertov

Glitter of grey
oarstrokes over
the waveless, dark,
secretive water.
A boat is moving
toward me
slowly, but who
is rowing and what
it brings I can’t
yet see.

From Selected Poems https://amzn.to/3bwDPhu

Monotype of the Day Mondays, Contemplation

contemplation2, monotype, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

It’s been a week since I posted my last print. This is the first installation of Monotype of the Day Mondays. It’s been an interesting week. I’ve made art everyday (but only a few monotypes) because I must. I love the poem The Waking by Roethke. This line really gets me:

“I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.”

(Full poem below the title)

I did fear to stop the daily postings of The Monotype of the Day Project, but it knew that’s where I had to go. Now new projects are opening before me, but as usual I have no idea how they will get done. For now, I only have faith. The idea was given to me so there must be a way to make it happen. I only have to be patient, do the work I can, and the path will become clear.

It’s been a bit difficult to adjust to stopping my nightly prints. The pull of my studio at 10-11pm is so very strong, but I am resisting. I have committed to sleeping and I’ve made some progress moving from 3-4 hours a night to 5-6 hours. Even that much makes a big difference and with my more rested mind a lot is going on in the studio! Some highlights:

-Monotype of the Day Book- I finally have time to work on this! There are so many pieces that have to come together to make this happen but progress is being made and I’m excited!

-Sketching and planning for my newest sculptural installation project. Only Patreon members are getting the details for now but I am VERY amped about it!

-Cleanup and reorganization (It has to happen see messy pictures below!)

contemplation 1 & contemplation 2
1/4/21
Monotype of the Day Monday

The Waking
By Theodore Roethke 

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go. 

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. 

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go. 

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. 

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

 This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

From The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke https://amzn.to/3neIBST

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

Hallelujah!, Monotype of the Day #900

Day 168 of year 3 (Total project days 900)

Day 900, the final print of my daily postings! Now I will switch to posting a monotype every Monday. Tomorrow I will post my thoughts on the project as a whole including what I've learned, thank yous, and some photo highlights. Today I wanted to end with my usual process. So as everyday for the last 900 days, I stood in front of my printing plate and received the images that came. Then I sat down at the computer and received the words below. This project has been a beautiful gift and I am tremendously grateful. But more on that tomorrow! Here is today's commentary:

I thought making today’s print would be a bit challenging, that I would feel the pressure to “make a good print” to end with. But the internal muscles I’ve built throughout this project to release judgment and let the creative process flow allowed me to work like it was any other night, which it is. Nothing has changed in my studio and tomorrow I'll be back in there working. Today is just another day. It's so often in our heads that we blow things out of proportion and create our own struggles. For every struggle in the studio, there is reward. And that reward is much more than beautiful art. The true reward is internal strength, spiritual growth, and connection. Wishing you strength and love. xo Sybil

The Artist and the artist, Monotype of the Day #899

The Artist and the artist
Day 167 of year 3 (Total project days 899)

Tomorrow is the final day of this project in this form. In the beginning of the project, I made many prints each day and chose one to post with no commentary. As my project progressed and the commentary and poetry became more and more important, I did fewer prints each day. It worked because I was in a rhythm and I never really left the flow from one day to the next. Today I slipped back into making many prints. It was so freeing. There is a different quality to working this way. It's not that one is better or worse, but the daily prints are more like a dairy, like dipping a cup into a stream. The multiple print sessions are like mining to tap a deep well. I am looking forward to mining for a while and I'll be posting the results each Monday on "Monotype of the Day Monday". I am filled with gratitude for all of you who have taken this journey with me and supported my work with your comments, likes, and purchases. xo Sybil.

Heavy Secrets
By Dorothy Walters

You and I carry heavy secrets within.
This is why our breasts have grown so large.
Already they are overflowing,
ready to fill the world’s waiting mouth.

From A Cloth of Fine Gold https://amzn.to/34QewCH

at peace, Monotype of the Day #898

Day 166 of year 3 (Total project days 898)

Was it Light?
By Theodore Roethke

Was it light?
Was it light within?
Was it light within light?
Stillness becoming alive,
Yet still?

A lively understandable spirit
Once entertained you.
It will come again.
Be still.
Wait.

From Poetry for the Spirit https://amzn.to/3hjq72a

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.  

at peace, Monotype, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

a new dawn, Monotype of the Day #891

Day 159 of year 3

Day 891. Today I'm feeling optimistic about my future projects. I suspect my sentiments about the change in this project will yo-yo this week. But there is already more space in my head, more land to plant. I feel emptier than I have in months. It's a wonderful feeling. I also have the seed of an idea about documenting my upcoming sleep journey for an art project. So one door closes and another opens, filled with mystery and promise. Soon I will step in.

The Broken Ground
By Wendell Berry

The opening out and out,
body yielding body:
the breaking
through which the new
comes, perching
above its shadow
on the piling up
darkened broken
old husks of itself:
bud opening to flower
opening to fruit opening
to the sweet marrow
of the seed
— taken from
what was, from
what could have been.
What is left
is what is.

From The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry https://amzn.to/3pcWEtF

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.  

the keyhole, Monotype of the Day #886

Day 154 of year 3

We are all keyholes waiting to be unlocked so our inner light can spill out into the world. Poem below the title.

This work is paired with "The Door" by Jane Hirshfield

Read it here: http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2006/10/233-door-jane-hirshfield.html

from The October Palace https://amzn.to/2Ku42kY 

the fire within, Monotype of the Day #885

Day 153 of year 3

Quatrain 359
By Rumi, Trans. Moyne & Barks

Do you think I know what I am doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it's writing,
or a ball can guess where it's going next.

From Open Secret https://amzn.to/3gJYnmX

the fire within, monotype, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.  

embraced, Monotype of the Day #879

Day 147 of year 3

One of my favorite poets, Dorothy Walters, has a wonderful blog: kundalinisplendor.blogspot.com/. It's filled with beautiful poetry, her own and others. Often if I'm feeling out of sorts, I browse the archives and I am revived. I found the poem below the title there.

Find It in You
By Baba Afzal Kashani, Trans. David and Sabrineh Fideler
(13th Century Sufi)

The Divine Book's imprint
is nothing but you.

The mirror of the King's Beauty
is nothing but you.

Not a thing in this world
is outside of you.

Whatever you're seeking --
you'll find it in you.

Found on: http://kundalinisplendor.blogspot.com/2006/08/

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.  

gestation, Monotype of the Day #873

Day 141 of year 3

Sonnets to Orpheus, I, IV
By Rilke, Trans Macey & Barrows

You who let yourselves feel: enter the breathing
that is more than your own.
Let it brush your cheeks
as it divides and rejoins beside you.
Blessed ones, whole ones,
you where the heart begins:
You are the bow that shoots the arrows
and you are the target.
Fear not the pain. Let its weight fall back
into the earth;
for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.
The trees you planted in childhood have grown
too heavy. You cannot bring them along.
Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.

From In Praise of Mortality https://amzn.to/33AbL7S

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.  

stream of life, Monotype of the Day #869

Day 136 of year 3

The image to the side is the plate inked up just before printing.

Plate just before printing

In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form
Casts no reflection.

-Dogen, Trans. Heine

Poem found on http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/D/DogenEihei/Instream/index.html

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.