arrival & here, Monotypes of the Day #821

Day 89 of year 3

Another evening where things aren't flowing. It doesn't sound good (and it's not that much fun 😊), but actually it is good. It means some old way of doing things is crumbling so that something new can come through. The attachment to doing things in a certain way has to be broken. Habits are strongly ingrained and comforting. But change is the essence of art so, though I struggled tonight, I'm excited about what's coming down the pipeline.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.
You can purchase this monotype here.

you must grow & you can grow (ghost print) Monotype of the Day #789

Day 57 of year 3

"You must change you life" is the final line of tonight's poem, Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rilke. After I named the first print it immediately came to mind. It's about a damaged sculpture of the Greek god Apollo. Although it doesn't exactly fit this piece, I've always loved the poem because it reminds me that there can be great power in brokeness. The speaker in the poem experiences this power and feels the call to transform. A variation of the last line, "You can change your life", has been my motto for many years. My deep belief in this idea, confirmed by my life and supported by my studio practice, has gotten me through some very difficult times. The circumstances of the external world sometimes, probably often, can not be changed but the inner world is always ripe for transformation. True and lasting change in the external world most often comes from healing the inner landscape. When our inner relationship to a situation changes, even though nothing in the world has shifted, everything feels different. These prints are depictions of change and growth in my inner world. (Poem below the title)

Archaic Torso of Apollo By Rilke, Trans Stephen Mitchell

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

From Selected Poems: https://amzn.to/2Zfc1an

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.

the conversation, Monotype of the Day #742

Day 11 of Year 3

Every time work starts to change, it feels risky and uncomfortable. There is so much momentum pulling you in the same direction to do the same thing. An artist needs strength and courage to pull themselves free. This is especially true because new work sometimes falls flat, it may take time to find your stride. Radical trust in the studio is essential. It is the faith that everything done in the studio, good, bad, or ugly, has meaning and purpose to your process though you may never know why. Lately I've felt in a bit of a rut with my work, it's felt too easy. But the past few night's it's felt uncomfortable. That is good, it's the sweet spot where internal change and external change happen. Staying with these uncomfortable feelings is transformational to the work and to the self. It's not easy, but it is an essential part of being an artist. If you are an artist, you have been given the strength and courage needed to transform. Believe in yourself. The river of creativity is always there flowing by. Dive in, you will be carried past the rapids to the sea.

the keyhole at night, Monotype of the Day #709

Day 339 of Year 2 (Actually Day 344)

I'm hitting that spot in my process where it's clear my work needs to evolve. I try not to judge the finished piece but when things need to shift I get an unsatisfied feeling. When I look at this piece, I feel it more in my head than in my heart and I make art to escape the limits of language and feel and experience things that are hard to articulate. Part of my unsatisfied feeling stems from hitting some physical limitations in what I can do without studio help. This is not unique to me though. Every artist has to contend with how the physical world shapes constricts the scope of their vision. The solution is to get creative and think outside the box. I'm percolating. We shall see what happens.

agent of change, Monotype of the Day #705

Day 335 of Year 2 (Actually Day 340)

Touched by an Angel
By Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight,
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

From Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou https://amzn.to/3ftENJW

through the keyhole, Monotype of the Day #700

Day 330 of Year 2 (Actually Day 335)

Day 700! This feels like an accomplishment and I want to take moment to acknowledge that. It's hard for many people, myself included, to take in accomplishments. We tend to focus on what we've done wrong rather than what we've done right. Taking a more balanced view is profoundly healing. This monotype of the day project has helped me tremendously with being more balanced. Putting something out everyday to be judged slowly washes away my attachment to my own judgements about my work. And, even more, the work has been transformative in ways I do not fully understand. I only know that I am not the same person who started this project 700 days ago and for that I am deeply grateful.

This work is paired with “Termites : An Assay” by Jane Hirshfield

from After Poems https://amzn.to/3hkPNet

dream of Light, Monotype of the Day #679

Day 309 of Year 2 (Actually Day 314)

I am really enjoying my time in the studio these days. I hit such a rough patch a few weeks back that I was actually thinking of giving up this project. I thought maybe it's run its course and I have nothing else to say in monotype. But I stuck with it through weeks of feeling uninspired and like I was repeating myself. Then one day without warning this new style came through. Now I feel renewed and everyday I am learning again. It feels like a bit of a miracle that so much growth sprung from such parched earth. This is the lesson given over and over in the studio, radical trust in process. Sometimes it is uncomfortable, but the dry patches are needed to move forward just as the ocean must recede to produce a new wave. It is the cycle of life and creativity.

eyes, Monotype of the Day #665

Day 295 of Year 2 (Actually Day 300)

It's been a month since we got our puppy and the house was an absolute wreck until this evening. Puppy shreddings everywhere. I have limited energy so I don't tidy up as much as I'd like. One day I looked and the piles had become too much. I literally couldn't think straight. Especially in my studio, I felt that mess bearing down on me like a weight. It's a good reminder that art isn't just what happens in the studio, it's the woven threads of the artist's whole life creating a framework for the universal creative flow to come through. If an artist is stuck in the studio, the answer often lies elsewhere. If we tend to our lives patiently, flow will return. This is the cyclical nature of life on earth, every ebb must be followed by a flow. Change is constant and nothing stays stuck forever. xo

the edge of night, Monotype of the Day #661

661.jpg

Day 291 of Year 2 (Actually Day 296)

I mixed a color tonight that has a good amount of white in it. The white seems to have blocked a lot of the under (ghost) layer and also doesn't have the depth of the inks without white mixed in. Lesson learned. Every image that fails in someway is a doorway. There are a lot of failures in studio practice, some true failures and some perceived by the artist alone. It is so important to understand that failure is a vital, beautiful part of the process. Understanding this is like grease for your gears. It keeps the creative spring flowing instead of stopped up by disappointment.

Quatrain 1115
By Rumi, Trans Colman Barks

The minute I am disappointed, I feel encouraged.
When I am ruined, I am healed.
When I am quiet and solid as the ground, then I talk
the low tines of thunder for everyone.

From Open Secret, Versions of Rumi https://amzn.to/2YvQsm8 (A really wonderful collection)

below the surface, Monotype of the Day #643

Day 273 of Year 2 (Actually Day 278)

Something is ready to shift in my work, but it's below the surface. I can feel it bubbling just out of reach. Often when I hit a rough patch, like the last few weeks, it's because something old needs to crumble to make room for something new. It's uncomfortable to say the least. No one likes to make work they don't feel good about. But every artist will tell you this common experience: they hated their work at the time but looking back, they find it was actually okay and sometimes even good. Our way of seeing is shaped by judgment and expectations. Our inner world has to shift and our narrow sight has to open to bring work to the next level. Change is uncomfortable, letting go of expectations and desires can be painful. But a deep embrace of whatever discomfort we are going through brings deep transformation and healing. This healed energy is what comes through in the new work and elevates it from the old. I know this will come. Patience Sybil, patience.

you are the key, Monotype of the Day #637

637.jpg

Day 267 of Year 2 (Actually Day 272)

Sometime it feels like we are very small and insignificant in the face of world events, but there is one place where we can always effect change, inside.

Instructions
By Danna Faulds

Hold the silence like
a mother holds her child.
Hold your ground while
all around you structures
crumble into nothing.
Focus on the still point
in your center until you
are filled with light, until
Spirit speaks to you in
words you understand,
until the love in your
heart grows so strong
it must be shared.

From Prayers to the Infinite https://amzn.to/2RoF47y

groundwork, Monotype of the Day #634

Day 264 of Year 2 (Actually Day 269)

Many of us are in the midst of deconstructing, if temporarily, a way of life. Routines are scrambled and the things we thought would come to pass have not. This is a moment of letting go, of ebb. But if we look to nature, we see that every ebb has its flow. It is the retreat of water that allows the wave. In this moment when it seems nothing is happening, the roots of something new and unknown are taking hold. The unknown can be scary and for some more than others. Tonight's poem is for those experiencing anxiety. My love to all who are sick or suffering. xo

This work is paired with "Retrospective" by Jane Hirshfield

Read it here embedded in this article https://www.vox.com/2020/3/21/21173809/book-review-poetry-poems-jane-hirshfield-ledger

from Ledger https://amzn.to/33nvmXF

cocooning, Monotype of the Day #628

Day 258 of Year 2 (Actually Day 263)

It's helpful for me to think of this time as cocooning rather than quarantining. This way I emphasize the potential for growth and transformation rather than fear and anxiety. We have to think very carefully about where we put mental energy. What supports us in continuing to live life as fully as possible during this strange time? The outside world is fixed. We must stay put, but the inner world is wide open. What will we make of it? My love to all those who are sick or suffering.