choose, Monotype of the Day #802

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.

partners, Monotype of the Day #800

Day 68 of year 3

Day 800, that's a nice number! I spent the day making color prints. Most of them will end up as under layers for future black ink prints but I liked this one. There is a special kind of freedom in making work you know will never be seen. It's a good way to oil the cogs so to speak. It loosens you up and relieves you of internal judgements. I haven't done this in a long while and it felt really good. (Poem below the title)

Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End?
By Mary Oliver

There are things you can’t reach. But
you can reach out to them, and all day long.

The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.

And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

The snake slides away; the fish jumps, like a little lily,
out of the water and back in; the goldfinches sing
from the unreachable top of the tree.

I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.

Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around
as though with your arms open.

And thinking: maybe something will come, some
shining coil of wind,
or a few leaves from any old tree–
they are all in this too.

And now I will tell you the truth.
Everything in the world
comes.

At least, closer.

And, cordially.

Like the nibbling, tinsel-eyed fish; the unlooping snake.
Like goldfinches, little dolls of goldfluttering around the corner of the sky

of God, the blue air.

From Why I Wake Early https://amzn.to/3mAFLII

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hatchling, Monotype of the Day #795

Day 63 of year 3

For more information on purchasing this monotype click here or see “Buy Art” in the menu above.

you are welcomed, Monotype of the Day #791

Day 59 of year 3

I have been feeling unsatisfied with my work the past couple of weeks. I'm sharing this because it a natural part of the process of working. Interestingly it doesn't necessarily correlate to the quality of the work. An artist can make phenomenal work and still not feel good about it. This is an internal state, part of being human. Just like in other areas of life, some days feel better than others for no good reason, some weeks are just bad. Maybe someday I'll look back on this period and like the work. It doesn't really matter though, what matters is being in the process- whatever it is at the moment good or bad. It can be easy to let frustrated or unsatisfied feelings overwhelm and become reasons to stop working. Working doesn't necessarily mean brush to canvas, it can also mean doing the internal work necessary to allow creativity to flow freely. Once you accept that these states as a normal part of the process, they are easier to be with. They become a passing moment in time rather than a blockade. You only have to wait and the well will fill again. Everything is cyclical. Trust, have patience, and the feeling of flow will return.

Birdsong Brings Relief
By Rumi, Translation Barks

Birdsong bring relief
to my longing.

I am just as ecstatic as they are,
but with nothing to say!

Please, universal soul, practice
some song, or something through me!

From The Essential Rumi https://amzn.to/3bKYTP6 

first light, Monotype of the Day #790

Day 58 of year 3

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.

safe passage, Monotype #783

Day 51 of year 3

Which is Worth More
By Rumi

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?
A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.

From The Essential Rumi https://amzn.to/2QIepla

feeling small I & II, Monotypes of the Day #778

Day 46 of year 3

Struggled a lot tonight with these prints. But sometimes it's like that. I'm posting them anyway. Make work not judgements! xo

opening, Monotype of the Day, Day 773

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.

glow, Monotype of the Day #771

Day 39 of year 3

In going through the images for my book, I noticed I double counted a couple days. This means I've actually done more days than I thought. The numbering for project days in now correct and I know this doesn't matter to anyone but me! :) Strange what we hold onto as important. There are so many distractions everyday, many of our own making, to keep an artist from their studio and their most important and sacred work. Resistance is part of the process though. It's important to accept it and let it go. There's no use being mad at yourself for wasted time. The studio is filled with intimate sacred moments and there is only so much of that our limited selves can handle without a break. So if you've been resisting, take a breath, let your self judgement go and when you can, however long that maybe, head back in.

mysterious, Monotype of the Day #769

Day 37 of year 3

Singing Image of Fire
By Kukai 8th-9th century Japanese Monk

A hand moves, and the fire's whirling takes different shapes:
All things change when we do.
The first word,
"Ah," blossoms into all others.
Each of them is true.
Found in the Nine Gates: Entering the mind of Poetry https://amzn.to/32n4yH9

spotlight, Monotype of the Day #766

Day 34 of year 3

When the World Comes Clear
by Andrew Colliver

When the world comes clear,
changeless in its changing
and everywhere revealed,

the sun might be lighting
a rendered wall inscribed
by winter tree's shadow;

when the world comes clear
light might seem to shift
to show a morning free of any other time;

when the world comes clear
something pulling tight within
your mind might fall away

to leave a formless space,
a fathomless space in which
eternal life cannot be granted,

or even offered,
but only recognized, so simply,

as what you are.- From the unpublished manuscript A Day of Light, by Andrew Colliver
Found on https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/C/ColliverAndr/WhenWorld/index.html

touched, Monotype of the Day #765

Day 33 of year 3

When I moved my website this year, I had to move my blog as well. The written content carried over but not the pictures. I've been going through it fixing and reading before I make it live again. Right now I'm in 2009 and I was writing about art and creativity even then. In some ways though the change in me is pretty dramatic. In 2009 I was afraid to post artwork and especially any photos of myself. Clearly those things aren't a problem for me anymore! How to account for the change? I attribute it to two things. One, Illness forced me to sit still and deal with myself, and two, the work. Making art is such a deeply transformative process. I am endlessly grateful to both my illness and The Artist, source of all creativity, for feeding me. It has been a difficult and painful road at times, but though I am more limited physically now, I carried much more internal pain and struggle then. I prefer now. I'll let you know when the blog goes live. xo

the conversation, Monotype of the day #763

I pull a ghost print everyday. This uses up the excess ink on the plate and provides a nice base for a future print. Sometimes I use one sheet of paper for several days of ghost prints. The more the merrier as they say! But sometimes, like tonight, you pull a ghost and you know it's a keeper. I couldn't decide which I liked best. What do you think?

the conversation & the conversation ghost (below this post)
Day 31 of year 3 (Total project days 761)

The Further You Go by Andrew Colliver

Mercy, there have been revelations. Grace, there has been realisation. Still, you must travel the path of time and circumstance.

The further you go, the more it comes back to paying attention. The rough skin of the tallowwood, the trade routes of lorikeets, a sky lifting behind afternoon clouds. Staying close to the texture of things.

People can go before you and talk all they want, but only one thing makes sense: the way the world enters and finds its voice in you: the place you are free.

From The Longing In Between https://amzn.to/3kLNv9I

portal, Monotype of the Day #748

Day 17 of Year 3