Day 116 of year 3
Studio Tour tomorrow! If you are in the area, I hope you will stop by!! Which hat will I wear, we shall see! I'll post a picture for those who can't come. xo
For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here. For the first 24 hours after posting, this piece is 10% off and can be purchased here.
mystical journey, 12 x 14”, Sybil Archibald
Day 105 of year 3
Whatever happens in the outer world, we still have control of our inner world. The studio can be a kind of a fortress in times of distress. Working is a way to maintain connection to the fundamental goodness of the human spirit. I've often felt that is it the job of the spiritual artist to maintain a connection to the light and work to bring its energy into the world. There can be a lot of difficulty and darkness out there, but there is an inner wellspring of creative light which we can use to trace back to our source. When we can't change the outer world, it's time to turn inward and delve for the light.
For more information about the process of monotype and the Monotype of the Day project click here. You can purchase this monotype here.
Day 70 of year 3
One of my favorite websites is www.poetry-chaikhana.com/. It contains a wealth of sacred poetry from around the world. Every time I visit, it seems I find something new. Tonight I discovered the poem below. Art feeds art and creativity is generously contagious and enriching. It's so important to the creative process to be exposed to different forms of art whether poetry, music, dance, etc. Cross pollination.
Elbows By John Fox
The sacred quality
of arms, particularly
elbows that make
each of us working class,
put us here for a purpose.
Look at elbows
and what they say:
elbow your way
into the passive crowd
to do what is needed,
give it your elbow grease --
this is enough.
Elbows, no one can
possess them because
they can disappear and
you move them
into action by choice.
And that choice
is prayer in action.
The deepest current of love
is not found in the heart.
That is the certain spring,
the natural ease, the flow
from the mountaintop.
The greatest current of love
rushes forward in the choice
to make a cradle of the body.
Found on https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/F/FoxJohn/Elbows/index.html I could not find the book source for this.
Day 69 of year 3
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Day 58 of year 3
Day 55 of year 3
Saint Francis and the Sow
By Galway Kinnel
The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
From Three Books https://amzn.to/3haC5JD
Day 45 of year 3
Day 41 of year 3
I've been going through all the photos of my older prints for days organizing for my book and the imagery is rubbing off. I feel like I'm covering old ground and it's not so interesting. This is what is coming out however and I will honor it and not resist and I do like this print. But I need to make it more exciting and experimenting with different techniques is just the thing. It brings back a sense of adventure, a critical component of my practice. If I knew what was going to happen each day in my studio, I wouldn't be able to continue. The immediacy of this medium allows the inner world to spill out like wine, it enables the mystery to bleed though. I cherish the surprise, the challenge, the intimacy of these messages to me the artist from The Artist, creative source. Everyday there are new things to learn and new ways to grow. I am grateful.
I had something I wanted to write about tonight, but this image is demanding to speak on its own so I must respect that. Until tomorrow. xo
the language of night #monotypeoftheday Day 36 of year 3 (Total project days 766)
Day 30 of Year 3
Day 29 of Year 3
Day 28 of Year 3
A moment of emptiness tonight. I wanted to do more but nothing came so I resisted my inclination and let it be. But this is where I am now, a place of waiting for the well to fill.
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
Day 15 of Year 3
I am grateful for the way having a long term illness has prepared me for this moment of sweeping change and unrest in the world. I've written before about learning to give things up and dealing with disappointments, but it's more than that. When you are faced with a complex illness, you literally don't know from day to day how you will feel, if something major will go wrong or if it will be business as usual. Very quickly on, I learned not to think about the future. I doubt I would even be able to get out of bed if I thought about all the negative possibilities- most completely out of my control. So I get up in the morning and with whatever energy I have, I do what I can to care for myself and then squeeze the most life I can out of each day regardless of my circumstances. Some days this is easy, the sun is shining and all is well, but some days it requires active listening for the good in an otherwise trying situation. I'm applying this same muscle to the pandemic and the political state of our country. I'm doing my best not to let possible futures (which may never come to pass) steal my present moment. Looking at tonight's print, I feel the damage and weight of dwelling on what might be but how deeply that is woven into the fabric of our humanity. Those future worries may always be there but with practice, it is possible for them to maintain a respectful distance.
the artist forgets the present
#monotypeoftheday
Day 15 of year 3
(Total project days 745)
Day 359 of Year 2 (Actually Day 364)
One year ago I made my first boat fire image. Looking back on photos of that print (sold for a while), I find myself as fascinated as ever by it's symbolism. Last year's print was calm and peaceful, this year the waters are rough, but still there is a sense of hope. This print is a message telling me to take heart. My vessel may be small and insignificant in the vast sea, but the way is lit and the fire is strong. Wishing you many blessings. xo