gestation, Monotype of the Day #656

Day 286 of Year 2 (Actually Day 291)

I've been spoiled by having a studio assistant for many years to help me with things that are difficult for my hands to do like tearing paper, making paper clay, and cutting mat chips. I believe I used my last piece of torn paper tonight and all my studio-made materials are running low. I've been working one way for a long time. Obviously, no one can come to my studio for a while so here is a chance to get out of my easy comfort zone and see what happens. I'm looking at this as an opportunity instead of a reason to be cranky. I hope my brain and mood will cooperate! 😊 My love to all those who are sick or suffering. xo

the visitor, Monotype of the Day #631

Day 261 of Year 2 (Actually Day 266)

Another very quick sketch this evening. This large moon is haunting my brain. My studio is a bit out of control at the moment. It's been several weeks without my studio assistant and I am getting down to the nitty gritty. Soon paper must be torn, mat chips cut, trash emptied and I have been spoiled rotten with help. Some things I can't so on my own so it will be interesting to see what effect this has on my work. Attachment. We get attached to things being a certain way. I am trying to let my expectations go and see what comes.

embryo, Monotype of the Day #555

Day 185 of Year 2 (Actually Day 190)

I have a number of larger projects bumping around in my head, but I'm feeling at a bit of a loss in the print studio. Getting my show put together was a major energetic completion. The new energies have not uncovered themselves yet. It's an uncomfortable moment which can easily derail an artist. No one likes to feel uncomfortable. No one likes to make work they're not happy with. The trick is just staying with the discomfort. It has to be ok to make incomplete, ugly, unsatisfying, whatever work. My trust in the process is absolute. Knowing that whatever it is being made today is necessary to bring an artist to the next step has carried me through many a rough patch.

From burweed
by Kobayashi Issa, Trans. Stryk and Ikemoto

From burweed,
such a butterfly
was born?

From Zen Poetry https://amzn.to/3anmIeT (A great book with a wide variety of poems and poets)

gestation, Monotype of the Day #547

Day 177 of Year 2 (Actually Day 182)

Another egg. I'm busy packing up tonight because tomorrow morning the truck arrives bright and early to be loaded for the gallery. Fun, nerve wracking, exciting? I don't really know how to describe it. But tonight, besides this print, my world is bubble wrap! Wish me luck! xoxo

empty, Monotype of the Day #449

Day 83 of Year 2 (Actually Day 84)

This piece feels undone to me but every time I tried to add something, it did not come. I've gotten much better at following directions so I was able to leave it even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. Looking at this monotype is uncomfortable, it feels messy and unfinished. My ego definitely didn't want to post it. 🙂 Then I realized this is moment of emptiness and uncertainty just before becoming, just before new arrives. This piece is holding the space void of myself, empty of ego, that allows for rebirth. The discomfort comes from not knowing, the strength comes from waiting. Things will unfold in their own time. I can sense them lingering just outside of the frame, dancing on the edge of my vision.

gestation, Monotype of the Day #408

Day 43 of Year 2

Have patience, have patience. Everything has it's own time. Something is brewing. Waiting for things to unfold is part of a healthy studio practice. Sometimes it seems that time is wasting away only to find later that it was just a gestation period and all that angst was for naught. Have patience. I say this for my own benefit. Have patience.

This work is paired with "Commentary Inflection: Invented Form" by Jane Hirshfield.

Read it here: https://sharonsinger.ca/poem.php?poem_id=76

From Given sugar, Given Salt

gestation, Monotype of the Day #293

I can't stop reading Theodore Roethke today. His poem, Forcing House, resonates so much. A forcing house a place in which the growth of plants is artificially hastened. My life has definitely felt like a spiritual forcing house lately. With each physical setback, there has been a corresponding flowering of internal growth. Illness lays waste to the ego, softens the heart, and teaches a deep level of compassion if you are open to grow.
I am so grateful to be here and to be feeling so strong and so alive, more than I felt in a very long time. If it were not for the kindness of my family, the care of my doctor team, and the blessings of good fortune, I would not be here. It is the confluence of these things and the deep pulse of life, the greening within me that allows me to embrace my forcing house.


Forcing House
by Theodore Roethke

Vines tougher than wrists
And rubbery shoots,
Scums, mildews, smuts along stems,
Great cannas or delicate cyclamen tips,
All pulse with the knocking pipes
That drip with sweat,
Sweat and drip,
Swelling the roots with steam and stench,
Shooting up lime and dung and ground bones,-
Fifty summers in motion at once,
As the live heat bellows from pipes and pots.

Womb, Monotype of the Day #227

227.jpg

Something different today, an experiment with a technique to be used in a more detailed piece in the future. First, I'm almost out of ink and paper so I'm back to my smallest plate (8"x10"). The different plate sizes completely changes my imagery. It's so interesting what an influence this has. Tonight I experimented with blocking out sections of the plate with paper so only certain areas print. I tried this once before around Christmas also with a similar, though more complex image. I don't know why this image is coming up again, but I powerfully felt the need to make it tonight. It must be a stepping stone on the way to something new or maybe just an excuse to post this poem :)

In every moment I am free
by Ayaz

In every moment I am free
To turn my face towards the sun
And receive Your blessing
The content
The infinite ebb and flow of sand and dust
Does not matter
The constant emptiness of Your regard
Ripens me
And turns my heart
Inside out to reveal the sun
Blazing inside.

From: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/A/Ayaz/Ineverymomen/index.html

the artist goes fishing, Monotype of the Day #217

A good day in the studio working on a larger piece that's been hanging around a while. (I'll post picture of it soon.) Sometimes a skeleton of a piece drops in. I tack it on my wall and then I have to live with it for a while until I catch up. I've finally caught up with this piece. This makes me happy, it means I'm expanding and making more room for creative flow. A good day indeed