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.

all fish desire home, Monotype of the Day #605

Day 235 of Year 2 (Actually Day 240)

Earlier today I did demo monotype of this image but the energy didn't feel complete so I tried again tonight. I find this image strangely stirring. Longing for the Unknowable yet fearful of it. xo


Meeting the Light Completely
By Jane Hirshfield
Read it here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/152783/meeting-the-light-completely

From October Palace https://amzn.to/2PWxEHC)

ready to turn, Monotype of the Day #567

567.jpg

Day 197 of Year 2 (Actually Day 202)

I feel was too careful with this one. Tomorrow I am going to do a number of smaller sketches to loosen up again. I wanted this image too much and my need curtailed my flow. It's exciting though, this is the first time a key has actually gone into a keyhole in my work.
The poem is just one stanza from a poem that is too long to post here, though I encourage you to look it up and read the whole thing. (You can find it here: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/O/OliverMary/HaveYouEverT/index.html) xo

Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches (excerpt)
By Mary Oliver ".....
Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?
Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot
in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself
continually?
Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed
with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?
......"
From West Wind https://amzn.to/2Ua2qjm

hand-some, Monotype of the Day #550

Day 180 of Year 2 (Actually Day 185)

As soon as I walked into the studio tonight I knew I needed to use this greenish color. It's a soothing antidote for a busy week. The show install is almost done. I'm really excited. The 4-D piece and the light piece came together really well. Hope to see you at the opening!

the gift, Monotype of the Day #539

Day 169 of Year 2 (Actually Day 174)

With just 8 days until I deliver my work to the gallery, I've been very busy. With no time to clean my studio at all, today it was just so far out of control I couldn't stand it. I've attached two pictures of the mess and one picture of a light clean I did just so I could think again. After the work is delivered there is going to be a major deep clean and studio organization. I'm generally against spending too much time straightening up but sometime you need to let the old energy go to make room for the new. This is another one of those non-art related tasks that people never think of when they romanticize artists working away in their studios. 😊
Today's print is about the wounds we all carry. The way we chose to carry them determines so much of our experience. I'll delve into this more deeply on another night when I haven't spent so much time cleaning! xo

sketch, Monotype of the Day #475

Day 109 of Year 2 (Actually Day 110)

Just a quick sketch tonight. I'm busy setting up for the studio tour this weekend and I guess I overdid it. I cant lift my left arm. I'm not too concerned, it happens, but I am a little put out. 🙂 However, I've learned to just surrender. This too shall pass. The less I get caught up in the mental suffering the easier it is. Sometimes there's nothing you can do to ease physical pain, but you can always shift your mind to change the experience of what you have to undergo. I've posted this poem before, but it always helps me. I do not feel as wretched as this poem at all but the point it makes is a good one. The inner world has a profound effect on the outer world.

Invictus
By William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51642/invictus

the search, Monotype of the Day #385

Day 20 of Year 2

If you keep seeking the jewel of understanding
by Abu-Said Abil-Kheir, trans. Vraje Abramian

If you keep seeking the jewel of understanding,
then you are a mine of understanding in the making.
If you live to reach the Essence one day,
then your life itself is an expression of the Essence.
Know that in the final analysis you are that
which you search for.

the artist is sustained, Monotype of the Day #335

335.jpg

I literally felt revived by the red from yesterday, almost like it was blood coursing in my veins. Tomorrow I may need to explore it more. We shall see... Tonight's image put me in mind of this poem from the Tao Te Ching. The creative flow passes through an artist, nourishing and healing as it continues on it's way. Artists learn over time to submit to it's call, not to grasp and control but to allow it to unfold. Making art is about giving, not possessing. The sage in this poem is a good model for the artist to aspire to.

Tao Te Ching #2
by Lao Tzu, Trans Sam Hamill

Beauty and ugliness have one origin.
Name beauty, and ugliness is.
Recognizing virtue recognizes evil.

Is and is not produce one another.
The difficult is born in the easy,
long is defined by short, the high by the low.
Instrument and voice achieve one harmony.
Before and after have places.

That is why the sage can act without effort
and teach without words,
nurture things without possessing them,
and accomplish things without expecting merit:

only one who makes no attempt to possess it
cannot lose it.

the heart (2), Monotype of the Day #324

I’m trying out a new brand of ink and I’m loving it although I don’t quite have the hang of it yet. My old brand is giving my some technical trouble. It’s funny how the resistance to change is so strong even when it’s clear change is a better option.

I’m sure when most people think of artists, they think of us working away in creative bliss. But there is much grunt work in being an artist too. Today I spent the whole day with the help of a studio assistant sorting hundreds of prints into piles by paper type and ink color in preparation for being properly photographed. Since my last attempt at photographing was an utter failure, I had to teach myself about f-stops, iso and how to shoot pictures from my computer with attached camera. I believe I finally have it right. So no attempt at words of wisdom tonight, just gratitude for progress and for the ability to keep showing up. xo

the heart, Monotype of the Day #323

A quick print tonight. I've been working on more complex prints lately and that has to be balanced with gestural prints so the mind and body stay in balance. I had a lot of trouble getting down to work tonight. My day was busy and it was wonderful but there was no emptiness or down time. Emptiness is necessary so there is space for creativity to fill. Eventually I sat down and meditated and opened enough room for this image. It's a good reminder that no time is wasted for an artist. It's easy to judge ourselves for not being more productive, organized, or whatever. But periods that seem lost, boring, difficult or chaotic give internal space for roots to grow and ideas to mature. To bring forth something new, old structures need to be broken down. Doing reinforces structure, being softens it. It's a matter of trusting the process and having faith that the creative flow will carry you where you need to go. Of course where you want to go and where you need to go may not be the same place! But that is the adventure of making art.

Suspended
by Denise Levertov

I had grasped God's garment in the void
but my hand slipped
on the rich silk of it.
The 'everlasting arms' my sister loved to remeber
must have upheld my leaden weight
from falling, even so,
for though I claw at empty air and feel
nothing, no embrace,
I have not plummetted.

xo

the artist receives healing, Monotype of the Day #313

At Home

Such a pleasure to have my green ink back! Am happy to be home. Sometimes it’s important to work, sometimes it is everything just to be with those you love I will revel in that feeling and leave you with this print and poem:

#1 From Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new. At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable. Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine. Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill.
—
If you haven’t read Gitanjali, I highly recommend you do! It’s great to have my books back! xoxo