filling station 2, Monotype of the Day #888

Day 156 of year 3

888 days, such a lovely round number, curvy and full. I believe in China 8 is considered a very lucky number. I feel lucky to have gotten this far in my monotype of the day project.

Tonight's print is the ghost ink from last night on top of the ghost ink from a few days ago with a few new additions. For some reason, this print makes me happy. Wishing you everything good. xo

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.  

filling station 2, monotype of the day, 12 x 14” Sybil Archibald

filling station 2, monotype of the day, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

frustration (2), Monotype of the Day #882

Day 150 of year 3

I've hit a major stumbling block in the studio. I accept where I am and trust my process. I know eventually I will figure it out, but that hasn't dissipated my feelings of frustration which are intense. I have to honor those feelings instead of fighting them so they can pass. I am grateful to have art to help me do that.

frustrated (2), monotype, 12 x 14” Sybil Archibald

frustrated (2), monotype, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.

For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.  

see me, Monotype of the Day #843

see me, monotype 12 x 14” Sybil Archibald

see me, monotype 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

Day 111 of year 3

We want the world to see us for who we are, but often we refuse to see ourselves and our fundamental goodness. We like to focus on our brokeness, but what of our light.

Oremus
By Pádraig Ó Tuama

So let us pick up the stones
over which we stumble, friends,
and build altars.

Let us listen to the sound of breath in our bodies.
Let us listen to the sounds of our own voices,
of our own names, of our own fears.

Let’s claw ourselves out from the graves we’ve dug.
Let’s lick the earth from our fingers.
Let us look up and out and around.

The world is big and wide and wild
and wonderful and wicked,
and our lives are murky, magnificent,
malleable, and full of meaning.

Oremus.
Let us pray.

From https://onbeing.org/programs/padraig-o-tuama-and-marilyn-nelson-a-new-imagination-of-prayer/ Also see Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community https://amzn.to/3mCfzN0

interior view, Monotype of the Day #830

interior view. monotype, 12 x 14” Sybil Archibald

interior view. monotype, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

Day 98 of year 3

Tonight's poem is from a really lovely book of poetry, Iron String, and is a new discovery for me. I hope you enjoy. 

Enough

By Annie Lighthart

Sometimes the birds like the bare branch, and later
the cover of leaves. And so it goes: a day of sun, then two
of rain. We are easy with the world and then can no longer be.
And the space between — what lives there? In the middle
of the in-breath and out — where are we just then?
Is there more than silence between chorus and verse?
Is it a compressed galaxy? A pocket of time? Or perhaps
it is more like the comma, dark little hook
on which many things turn. Sometimes it’s enough
to slip into that darkness and just stand there, looking around.

 From Iron String https://amzn.to/3oinBMS

 For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here.

You can purchase this monotype here.

congregation, Monotype of the Day #822

congregation. monotype, 12 x 14” Sybil Archibald

congregation. monotype, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

Day 90 of year 3

I finally cleaned my studio up about halfway. Such a relief! Mess is good for creativity up to a point and I crossed that point long ago. 😊Art doesn't happen in a vacuum, everything in an artist's life is linked. Get out of balance in any area and it effects the studio.

Effortlessly
by Mechthild of Magdeburg, trans. Jane Hirshfield

Love flows from God into man,
Like a bird
Who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
Thus we move in His world
One in body and soul,
Though outwardly separate in form.
As the Source strikes the note,
Humanity sings --
The Holy Spirit is our harpist,
And all strings
Which are touched in Love
Must sound. –

From Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Cebturies of Spiritual Poetry by Women: https://amzn.to/2GMmQuk

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

annunciation, the window, Monotype of the Day #759

Day 27 of Year 3

This is the ghost print from yesterday with a few layers printed on top. Yesterday felt like an important print in my spiritual development, a moment of absence and emptying. Consciously adding into that image today feels transformational.

What Else?
By Carolyn Locke

The way the trees empty themselves of leaves,
let drop their ponderous fruit,
the way the turtle abandons the sun-warmed log,
the way even the late-blooming aster
succumbs to the power of frost—

this is not a new story.
Still, on this morning, the hollowness
of the season startles, filling
the rooms of your house, filling the world
with impossible light, improbable hope.

And so, what else can you do
but let yourself be broken
and emptied? What else is there
but waiting in the autumn sun?

From The Place We Become https://amzn.to/3iC9rmb
Found on http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2015/10/carolyn-locke-what-else.html

annunciation, the wait, Monotype of the Day #758

Day 26 of Year 3

All day I tried to get a good watercolor print with no luck. Mess followed mess, much of it due to technical problems. It was terribly frustrating so I went back to my friend, the ink for a few prints at the end of the day. One thing is certain, I definitely appreciate my ink a lot more! Both watercolor and acrylic have lots of possibilities so I'm going to keep at them and see what happens. For now though, I'm still in that uncomfortable in-between place waiting for my flow to return. A new wave is coming but when it will arrive is a mystery. The trick is waiting and remaining empty, holding the space for when it arrives. Waiting doesn't mean stopping work, it means not grasping and not trying to make something happen. It means putting one foot in front of the other and being present so you know when it happens. I think this print captures some of that needed inner spaciousness.

The Avowel
By Denise Levertov

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.

From The Stream and the Sapphire https://amzn.to/3a97hqO

revelation, Monotype of the Day #744

Day 13 of Year 3

This picture is intentionally askew. Why do prints usually sit level on the paper? Maybe there is something pleasing in the balance it brings, but also because it's one of those conventions we never think to challenge. So much of life around us is like that. When something happens as it did to me, limiting the use of my hands, in a way it's a blessing. It forces you to think outside of the box, dive deeply into creativity, and to grow.

keyhole, Monotype of the Day #728

Day 357 of Year 2 (Actually Day 362)

I did a very light white and yellow layer over the ghost from last night but I wish the white ink was more opaque. Art materials have a will and vision of their own and often t is at odds with what the artist wants. It can be an ongoing battle, a conversation, and sometimes even a surrender. Artist materials ground and connect us to the physical world. They remind that we are physical beings that live in the present moment. This is why I try to listen to my materials and partner with their purpose rather than resist. Surprising things happen at the meeting point of divine creative flow and the material world. The artist is the cauldron where these two determined energies mix and are transmuted into one.