worship & worship ghost print, Monotype of the Day $784

.Day 53 of year 3

Yesterday when we walked in the forest I saw the first colorful leaves of fall on the ground. I had that wistful end of summer feeling and today fall colors have shown up in my prints. Change is inevitable. The seasons turn by. Some change is easy and some is difficult, even unacceptable like illness or death. I have spent a good deal of my life learning to accept the unacceptable. I have been ill since my early 20s and I've missed a lot of things. I've struggled and almost died. But everything that I had to go through changed me for the better and opened my heart. This experience has grown in me a deep and abiding trust in my journey. Through everything I've experienced, there has been a greater purpose. I've learned to do what I can to the best of my abilities and trust that what needs to happen will. What needs to happen and what I want to happen are not always the same thing. Trust goes hand in hand with releasing control. This is a lesson that is also learned in the studio. the artist trusts in their own process, the artist surrenders to The Artist.

opening, Monotype of the Day, Day 773

Day 41 of year 3

I've been going through all the photos of my older prints for days organizing for my book and the imagery is rubbing off. I feel like I'm covering old ground and it's not so interesting. This is what is coming out however and I will honor it and not resist and I do like this print. But I need to make it more exciting and experimenting with different techniques is just the thing. It brings back a sense of adventure, a critical component of my practice. If I knew what was going to happen each day in my studio, I wouldn't be able to continue. The immediacy of this medium allows the inner world to spill out like wine, it enables the mystery to bleed though. I cherish the surprise, the challenge, the intimacy of these messages to me the artist from The Artist, creative source. Everyday there are new things to learn and new ways to grow. I am grateful.

blood moon, Monotype of the Day #644

Day 274 of Year 2 (Actually Day 279)

Enjoying the freedom of play the last few days with these layered spaces. I've written about the importance of play to an artist before. When you play you are not judging, you have no expectations, and you are just in the expansive present moment. Judgment makes us small and narrows possibilities. We know this and yet can't stop. The word play is a way of tricking the brain into turning that mental habit off. Really all art making is play. The Artist delights in the artist, the Source of all delight generously spills into the world through so many imperfect earthen vessels.

rooted, Monotype of the Day #633

Day 263 of Year 2 (Actually Day 268)

Well our new puppy has absorbed every second of time- free or otherwise. Also today my son, who has been in precautionary quarantine in my basement for two weeks, emerged. It was a VERY busy day. So strange that such a crazy and intense day brings such a centered image. This large moon, barren treescape, and color have been coming up over and over. I've been experimenting with different techniques each night. Last night's process was by far the most successful, at least for me, but tonight's is the calmest. Images work on different levels. There is the external level for viewers of my work and the internal level which is a private message to me, The Artist speaking tenderly to the artist. Not every image speaks deeply to me, but this one is particularly charged. The peaceful color and rooted person are directing me, stay calm, find your center. Though the trees are barren, to me they appear simply to be waiting for signs of spring. Patience will bear fruit.

windows, Monotype of the Day #618

Day 248 of Year 2 (Actually Day 253)

Is this a sunrise or sunset? I wasn't sure until I realized it is both. One way of being is ending as another is coming into form. Now is a moment of deep surrender and trust. It is a moment of unknowing. Our old ways have, at least for the time being, come to an end. The studio teaches so much. In the studio the artist learns to let go and embrace the unknown, to let life force run through them and into the world. By doing this, the artist is changed and healed, enveloped by the greening, generative energy that undergirds all of life. What happens in the studio then spills out and effects the world. If you feel helpless think of the artist. There is little we can do right now to change the outside world. We must stay home, we must wait. But we can look inside, we can find kindness for ourselves and others, we can heal and reshape our internal world and thereby create ripples that positively effect everyone around us. We have lost a lot but all is not lost, we can still make these moments count. Sending prayers for healing and love to all those who are sick or in difficulty. xo

voyager, Monotype of the Day #585

Day 215 of Year 2 (Actually Day 220)

Last night I dreamed I was climbing a ladder. I don't dream very often these days, so when it happens it's significant. In September 2018, near the beginning of this project, I was making a lot of ladders and there is an image similar to this one. This one has keys though, the image has evolved. These evolved images resonate with special energy, they are tender personal messages from The Artist to the artist. I always come back to the alchemical saying, "As above so below, as within so without, as the universe so the soul". Everywhere I look I see cycles, ebb and flow, winter and summer, night and day, it only makes sense to see it in the studio as well. I am heartened when I see evolution in an older image. Growth and change are at the heart of life and I am happy to be carried along in that rhythmic pulse.

highlight, Monotype of the Day #579

Day 209 of Year 2 (Actually Day 214)

Tonight, I used my regular-sized plate for the initial print, then a smaller plate (3" x5") to continue printing layer after layer on top. It was fun to do and gives a very different effect. Escaping ruts and well worn techniques such an important part of making art. Growth and change are the essential. Even though I've liked many of my recent prints, I felt I had stopped taking risks and the artist (me) hadn't been listening to universal The Artist. In this print, I am seeking to reconnect.
I am definitely not a poet, but occasionally some words come to me and I attempt to mimic a real poem.

the artist Waits
By Sybil Archibald
quiet
and still

a tattered glove waits
for the fiery hand of
The Artist.

the artist is all eyes, Monotype of the Day #520

Day 154 of Year 2 (Actually Day 155)

Today an artist friend of mine sent me a really interesting inverted image of my print last night. I loved the way it looked so I set out to make it tonight. Of course when I got to my plate, The Artist had other plans for the artist (me) and this is what came out- something totally completely different! That's why making art is such an adventurous calling, you just never know.

Quatrain 1359
By Rumi, Trans Moyne and 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 is writing,
or the ball can guess where it is going next. -

From Open Secret, Versions of Rumi https://amzn.to/2rEqBuy

trust, Monotype of the Day #494

Day 128 of Year 2 (Actually Day 129)

I've felt a little blocked in the monotype studio lately. Mainly because I'm focused on prepping for my solo show in January. I have a limited amount of energy each day and have to be judicious about how I use it. I thought this was my major constraint, but today I realized lack of mental space is even more of an issue. The to do lists, deadlines, and anxieties were overfilling my brain. This last week, I began meditating again to reclaim and empty my mind. It feels great to have the channel open once more. Today while meditating, this image dropped in. With all the tasks to finish before my show, there is a bit of vertigo, a feeling of falling. This image is a gift from The Artist to the artist (me), to sooth and comfort. Trust the process and all will be well.

cocoon, Monotype of the Day #493

Day 127 of Year 2 (Actually Day 127)

Deep change happens beyond the comprehension of the mind. This is why it helps to surrender and trust. When the mind cannot understand something is afoot. The studio is a microcosm, trusting in the process here helps me trust out there in the world. The Artist trains me (an artist) everyday in my studio. This builds spiritual muscles that inform and change the way I lead my life. The result is my small "a" in artist keeps shrinking. The more it shrinks the happier and more empowered I feel. It's a beautiful sacred process and I am grateful to have a chance to pursue this work in the studio and in my spirit.

From burweed
By Kobayashi Issa, Trans. Stryk and Ikemoto

From burweed,
such a butterfly
was born?

From Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter https://amzn.to/2XpvtyM 

Here, Monotype of the Day #459

Day 93 of Year 2 (Actually Day 94)

Today, I needed to feel this orange, with its life affirming heat. From there, the image unfolded. It always starts like that, a flush of color or a fragment of image pops into my head like a key to unlocking a mystery. Then, the innate wisdom of the body takes over. My hands, even in their weakened state, know more about making art than my brain ever could. In this process, the brain has a more important task than thinking. It must empty and listen. The ink's voice, the images that pop in, the nudges, must be heard. All are messages from the universal source of all creativity, The Artist, shining through from behind the veil, a gift to the artist.

By Angelus Silesius, Trans. Stephen Mitchell
God, whose love and joy
are present everywhere,
Can't come to visit you
unless you aren't there.

From The Enlightened Heart https://amzn.to/2OKKWHD

Helping Hand, Monotype of the Day #435

Day 69 of Year 2 (Actually Day 70)

I'm feeling super stressed out, so when I went to make my print tonight I had an image in mind to express that state. Instead, what came out was an image of support and gentleness. This is an example of how these prints are both an offering to viewers and an intimate conversation between myself (the artist) and The Artist (source of all creativity). I feel the support demonstrated in the print now, that energy is in me. I did however, wipe the ink on tonight instead of rolling it. That's a very satisfying physical motion that helps express the stress away. xo

Emanation, Monotype of the Day #429

Day 63 of Year 2 (Actually Day 64)

The trip really took a toll on me. I'm moving like a snail around the studio. One of the many gifts of studio time is that when I am working, it's not that the pains go away, but they cease to matter. For that creative moment it's just me, the ink, and the energy flowing through, nothing else matters. It's such a privilege to be in that sublime energy. Strangely, it is as much an earth energy as it is a spiritual one. The two worlds exist at once. While working, I feel completely rooted in the earth and the present moment while feeling the hand of The Artist moving through me. the artist (me) and The Artist working together, master and apprentice. I will sleep and hopefully tomorrow I will feel better, but if not there is still the studio to nourish and heal in the loving embrace of The Artist. (Poem below the title)

Logos
by Mary Oliver

Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and the felt ferocity of that love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into many.
Imagine him, speaking,
and don’t worry about what is reality,
or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
If you can imagine it, it is all those things.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
spoken with love.

From Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver https://amzn.to/2LUFsqu

it's a mystery, Monotype of the Day #418

Day 53 of Year 2

Many of my images have to do with listening. One of my favorite poets, Jane Hirshfield said "... the feeling I have about poem-writing (is) that it is always an exploration, of discovering something I didn't already know. Who I am shifts from moment to moment, year to year. What I can perceive does as well. A new poem peers into mystery, into whatever lies just beyond the edge of knowable ground." I think this applies to visual art too. When a core image repeats over and over even with all the variations, "The Artist" (the creative source) is trying to send a message to "the artist" (me) but it's "just beyond the edge of knowable ground" as Hirshfield puts it. So I have to grow and expand my edges to encompass new ground. Each time this imagery comes through it has evolved which echoes my internal evolution. One day the image will stop coming through all together because it's message and energy of change it brings will have been fully received.

Hidden & the swimmer, Monotype of the Day #414

Day 49 of Year 2

Tonight I did a bunch a prints, but I thought posting the reworked ghost images from last night's plates would be most interesting. Yesterday, I used two plates, one to create a landscape and the other to print a figure over it. Tonight, on the landscape plate, I rerolled different colored inks over sections but left much of the same structure. I barely touched the figurative plate. Honestly I was mainly trying to get the extra ink off before cleaning. Interestingly, more often than not, a ghost print is better than a first pull. Expectations are so much lower because there is already a good print and you can really let it fly. Knowing that if you ruin it, it's not a great loss turns your brain off and gives great freedom.

It's always such an adventure to peel the paper off the plate and see a ghost print. You never know what you will get. The ink dictates things. During the first pull, a lot of the detail and artist's mark making has been obscured. The extra ink is removed and what's left is just the essential, stripped of much of the artist's intent. It's the ink that wanted to stay but still has plans and something to say. The partial stripping of the artist's intent is a lesson and a reminder that the artist is a window for creativity to pass into the world. We contribute, we are partners, but what comes through is an eternal energy of change meant to transform the artist as much as the viewer. Ghost prints subdue the artist's ego and remind us that we are "the artist", not "The Artist". Every moment spent creating is a gift from "The Artist". Hidden (Plus bonus print- the swimmer)

My Hut
by Issa (Japan 1763-1827), Trans. Stryk & Ikemoto

My hut,
thatched
with morning glories.

from Zen Poetry https://amzn.to/2NPaXF0