the artist surrenders, Monotype of the Day #808

Day 76 of year 3

I am grateful that 2 of my monotypes found wonderful homes today. It is always a moment of great joy to put a piece into the hands of its new owner. This is an interesting process, letting a piece go out into the world. Artists put so much of themselves into their work all the while knowing that it must leave them forever and irrevocably. So the artist must learn detachment. They must learn that although they have poured themselves into that piece, it is not them. It sounds like an easy concept, but it is a hard lesson every artist must learn. It effects an artists ability to sell and also their ability to discuss their work. Praise or blame for a piece, critiques and criticisms are not critiques of the artist as a person, though it can sometimes feel this way. When the work goes out, sometimes it is as cherished as the artist desires and sometimes the world has other plans. Once a frame shop burned down with my piece inside. So what is an artist to do? Let go our need to control what happens to the work and trust. Trust in the meaning and purpose of working. Have faith that what you do matters though you may never know the why, where, or how of it. Be grateful for your amazing collectors and get back into the studio where you belong.

For the next 24 hours buy this monotype for 10% off here: https://www.sybilarchibaldart.com/daily-monotype-sale

After that, you can purchase it here: https://www.sybilarchibaldart.com/monotypes-for-sale

sunrise at sea, Monotype of the Day #770

Day 38 of year 3

"The perfect way is not difficult, only avoid picking and choosing" -Seng-ts'an, 6th century Buddhist master

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

the flock, Monotype of the Day #673

Day 303 of Year 2 (Actually Day 308)

Today I made eggs for breakfast and when I lifted the pan, something I have done many times, it was just too heavy and it slipped from my hand, broke my plate, and clattered to the floor tossing eggs everywhere. It's sometimes difficult for me to understand the limits of what I can and cannot do because they change from day to day. One day I can do something, the next day it's not possible, and then two days later it could be fine again. The hardest part is not the limitations, it's the uncertainty. Learning to live with this flux has been a wonderful lesson in detachment. I have adjusted to the unknown and learned to live and even thrive. There are a lot of unknowns in the world right now, I share my story hoping to show that it is possible to find a measure of peace even in the midst of a storm. My love to all those who are suffering or sick.

Allow
By Danna Faulds

There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt,
containing a tornado. Dam a
stream and it will create a new
channel. Resist, and the tide
will sweep you off your feet.
Allow, and grace will carry
you to higher ground. The only
safety lies in letting it all in –
the wild and the weak; fear,
fantasies, failures and success.
When loss rips off the doors of
the heart, or sadness veils your
vision with despair, practice
becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your
known way of being, the whole
world is revealed to your new eyes

From Go In and In: Poems from the Heart of Yoga https://amzn.to/2z4S7oD

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.

the keyhole, Monotype of the Day #481

Day 115 of Year 2 (Actually Day 116)

Now that I see this image photographed, I would like to go downstairs to my studio and change something! It's too late at night though, so maybe I will try again tomorrow. One thing about my monotype of the day project is that individual pieces don't sit and marinate. If I am painting, I can go back the next day to change and adjust. Here, all the marination goes on inside me during the 24 hours between each print. If it's an off day, I move on instead of rework. It's an interesting and different way of working and it's really influencing my work in other mediums. This process is very freeing because it teaches detachment. Each day I am forced to let one image go so another can grow.

the beacon at night, Monotype of the Day #472

Day 106 of Year 2 (Actually Day 107)

Yesterday was interesting. Despite my extreme dislike of the print bubbles, it received a positive response proving once again, an artist is not meant to judge the value of their own work. Work flows through and out. Radical trust is required, trust that though an artist may not learn the true purpose of an individual piece, there is purpose. Tonight I needed this red, I felt it warming my chest, giving me life force. It changed me. But I will never know if it has a purpose after it goes out into the world. That has to be okay because the fastest way to block up creative flow is to become attached to certain outcomes. Creative freedom comes from detachment especially detachment from making a "good" work of art. Every work has a purpose whether it is to change the artist, its viewers, or both. Yesterday was a great reminder to trust, turn off the judgement, and turn on the flow.

ALL
by Wendell Berry
All bend in
one wind.
From Given https://amzn.to/2NgLN0dg

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

"so many fish long for bait", Monotype of the Day #266

The title is a quote from the poem below. This phrase touches me deeply, we don't always know what is best for us. Our desires are not always for our highest good. Sometimes the thing is just to breathe and wait to be filled by the unknown as our desires pass us by. This is a lesson in trust and trust is one of foundations of making art (and also of healing).

Cooling Off
by Wang Wei
English version by Willis Barnstone
Original Language Chinese

Clear waters drift through the immensity of a tall forest.
In front of me a huge river mouth
receives the long wind.
Deep ripples hold white sand
and white fish swimming as in a void.
I sprawl on a big rock,
billows nourishing my humble body.
I gargle with water and wash my feet.
A fisherman pauses out on the surf.
So many fish long for bait. I look
only to the east with its lotus leaves

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/W/WeiWang/CoolingOff/index.html

receiving healing, Monotype of the Day #260

As many of you who have been following my posts know, I have had a difficult month health-wise, but I'm now on the mend. Throughout the month, and even when I was in the hospital, I continued making my daily prints. I made them, but I didn't like them. It was hard to tell if they really weren't good or of I just didn't feel well. One of the core struggles of being an artist is judging your own work. I consistently find that I get the most positive responses on piece I like the least. I've come to believe that it is not my job to judge my work or even to like particular pieces. Rather, it's my job to follow the energy of piece. To let that energy flow through and to work it until it dissipates and finally to withhold judgement. It's hubris to think I know the purpose of a piece, whether one single person is meant to be moved or many, whether it is about changing some stuck energy, or even bringing something new into the world. How can anyone presume to really know the impact of the footprints they leave on earth? This is heavy training for the ego which wants everything to make it look good. It is also a deep lesson in detachment. It is common for artists to identify so closely with their own work that it is hard to let it go out into the world and face judgement. Detachment allows an artist to let work go with blessings. The key is to keep working and know your work has meaning in the world that you will likely never know. This is the promise of creativity, the gift of The Artist to the artist. So, as much as I hated posting my weeks of hospital prints, my faith in the process and unknowable purpose of working kept me dutifully doing my job and I am grateful for such a job (even though there has been more than a little grumbling of late!). xoxo