voyager, Monotype of the Day #585

Day 215 of Year 2 (Actually Day 220)

Last night I dreamed I was climbing a ladder. I don't dream very often these days, so when it happens it's significant. In September 2018, near the beginning of this project, I was making a lot of ladders and there is an image similar to this one. This one has keys though, the image has evolved. These evolved images resonate with special energy, they are tender personal messages from The Artist to the artist. I always come back to the alchemical saying, "As above so below, as within so without, as the universe so the soul". Everywhere I look I see cycles, ebb and flow, winter and summer, night and day, it only makes sense to see it in the studio as well. I am heartened when I see evolution in an older image. Growth and change are at the heart of life and I am happy to be carried along in that rhythmic pulse.

into the Light, Monotype of the Day #581

Day 211 of Year 2 (Actually Day 216)

It is really common for an artist to have an ebb after putting together a large project like a show. I knew this and planned a number of projects to keep me moving. I've embarked on all of them and things are moving forward in the studio but the flow of energy is what it is. Things fill and empty, they ripen and fall. I can not escape the cycle of life. Although planning has helped lessen my ebb, I still find the need to recharge. That means keeping up my work but being ok for now that it is floundering a bit and I'm not satisfied. Something new and mysterious (for now) is growing. My job is to refill my tank so I can pour forth creative flow again. By trusting in and accepting that this is a natural cycle, it is much easier to go though.
Technical note, tonight I started with printing small plates multiple times and then put the large plate on top. That's the reverse of my usual process. It was fun to work this way and I like the results.

"...That Passeth All Understanding"
By Denise Levertov

An awe so quiet
I don't know when it began.

A gratitude
had begun
to sing in me.

Was there
some moment
dividing
song from no song?

When does dewfall begin?

When does night
fold its arms over our hearts
to cherish them?

When is daybreak?

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

hidden echo, Monotype of the Day #542

Day 172 of Year 2 (Actually Day 177)

Another calming image tonight. I'm feeling unaccountably relaxed considering I have just 5 days to get everything completed for my show. I was really stressed for a while but my daily practice of monotypes brought me back down to earth. The value of positive habits can't be overstated. They ground you in moments of chaos or pressure. They remind you that life goes on and our drama is just that, drama. Trees will keep blooming, grass will still grow, and I will continue to brush my teeth until I take my last breath and my creativity passes to another. Our own insignificance in the passage of time is strangely comforting. Without the pressure of self imposed ideas of greatness or importance we are free to truly be ourselves and create marvelous things. This week, I'm just breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. xo

Until Even the Angels
By Dorothy Walters

What the heart wants
is to follow its true passion,
to lie down with it
near the reeds beside
the river,
to devour it in the caves
between the desert dunes,
to sing its notes
into the morning sky
until even the angels
wake up
and take notice
and look around
for their beloved.

From A Cloth of Fine Gold https://amzn.to/2QMn2uE

forest time, Monotype of the Day #534

Day 164 of Year 2 (Actually Day 169)

There is mundane, everyday time and then there is forest time, the hidden and surprising divine time. Making art hooks you into divine time. Every artist will tell you that hours can vanish in a minute while they are working. But divine time is much more than this too. It is the unfolding of plans the Universe has for us. It is when the help you need magically appears or when something beautiful falls painfully apart but is replaced by something better than you could ever have imagined. It is a secret mysterious force that sweeps our lives forward if we surrender to it. Stepping out of worry and into surrender and trust is challenging, but these things are spiritual muscles. With practice, things get easier and you grow stronger. So I am practicing and working, and then practicing and working again. And so it will go until I reach the end of my days.

dream of bird, Monotype of the Day #530

Day 160 of Year 2 (Actually Day 165)

Playing with the ghost ink from yesterday's plate tonight. I liked the beam of light so I reorganized some of the symbols from last night and calmed the emotion. It felt like consciously choosing to shift out of that old energy by rearranging the physical world. I really find the ancient alchemical saying, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, to be true: "“As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul.” Making art changes the artist. It is so important to be present while working. Otherwise we slip into habits and ruts and loose the opportunity to be changed by the process. Being present keeps the eternal creative fountain running and its constant flow wears away our sharp edges and makes space for more of what is good and true to pour into the work and thereby into the world. xoxo

dream of falling water, Monotype of the Day #529

Day 159 of Year 2 (Actually Day 164)

The last number of days fountain / waterfall images keep coming out, but this feels like the end of that energy for now. I can't say why, but I have real sense of completion. Maybe later understanding will come, maybe not. So many energies that work through us are not for the conscious mind to understand, we must just stay the course and trust. The longer I make art, the more I understand just how essential trust is to the process. Without it the artist is condemned to repeat themselves in an every deepening rut.
The whole intense, fun, and sometimes stressful journey of prepping for my solo show has also reminded me to trust. The more I've let go of control and allowed things to unfold in their own time, the more miraculous instances of help have appeared. I am very grateful and I am really looking forward to sharing more of my work with you.

This work is paired with "For Presence" by John O’Donohue from To Bless the Space Between Us https://amzn.to/2PRTsVm

self portrait with timer, Monotype of the Day #462

Day 96 of Year 2 (Actually Day 97)

To be alive is to have anxiety, angst, pain, all of it. Holding these emotions in will block the creative flow. Uncomfortable, darker feelings must be acknowledged to be released. The artist needs to be fearless in their embrace in order to find the Light. This piece helped me empty my vessel for more creativity to flow in.

Secret Language
by Rumi, Trans. Coleman Barks

Every part of you has a secret language
your hands and your feet
say what you've done
and every need brings in what's needed
pain bears its cure like a child
From the website Poetry Chaikhana https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RumiMevlanaJ/SecretLangua/index.html
Transcribed from a CD: Secret Language https://amzn.to/33FhIOr

empty, Monotype of the Day #449

Day 83 of Year 2 (Actually Day 84)

This piece feels undone to me but every time I tried to add something, it did not come. I've gotten much better at following directions so I was able to leave it even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. Looking at this monotype is uncomfortable, it feels messy and unfinished. My ego definitely didn't want to post it. 🙂 Then I realized this is moment of emptiness and uncertainty just before becoming, just before new arrives. This piece is holding the space void of myself, empty of ego, that allows for rebirth. The discomfort comes from not knowing, the strength comes from waiting. Things will unfold in their own time. I can sense them lingering just outside of the frame, dancing on the edge of my vision.

gestation, Monotype of the Day #408

Day 43 of Year 2

Have patience, have patience. Everything has it's own time. Something is brewing. Waiting for things to unfold is part of a healthy studio practice. Sometimes it seems that time is wasting away only to find later that it was just a gestation period and all that angst was for naught. Have patience. I say this for my own benefit. Have patience.

This work is paired with "Commentary Inflection: Invented Form" by Jane Hirshfield.

Read it here: https://sharonsinger.ca/poem.php?poem_id=76

From Given sugar, Given Salt

sunrise, Monotype of the Day #405

Day 40 of Year 2

As the summer is coming to an end, I feel the rise of something new. It is brewing deep inside. The life of the studio is cyclic like the seasons: growth, harvest, laying fallow, new beginnings, over and over again. But where the seasons are on a regular schedule, the timeline in the studio is more mysterious. You never know what each day will bring. This is why it's so important to show up and be present to the energy each day. If you are too distracted, you might miss a season of growth. It's a bit like surfing. When that energy comes in you have to catch the wave and ride it as far as you can. Other times, you're still in the studio working even though it might feel more challenging so when the next wave comes, you are in position to catch it. It can feel difficult during a fallow period, especially if you are focused on product over process. But if you remember everything is a cycle, the seasons, the sunrise and sunset, you will know all that is required is patience until the next positive wave comes around. Have faith and carry on.

Sunrise
By Mary Oliver

You can
die for it–
an idea,
or the world. People

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire

the hands, Monotype of the Day #384

Day 19 of Year 2

I've been posting a lot of Dorothy Walters poems lately. Her work moves my greatly. It is proof that art, whether it be painting, poetry, dance or etc., matters. Her work has changed me as has the work of so many other creators. I am grateful and I hear the clock ticking. Dive deeply into your work, you too can change the world.

Travel in my Palm
by Dorothy Walters

all the soothsayers
and astrologers
say I have travel
in my palm.

Yet I never
go anywhere
but here.

But this is where
it all takes place,
this going back and forth
between the realms.
Is this what they mean?

internal sunrise, Monotype of the Day #379

Day 14 of Year 2

It is comforting to remember there is a rhythm to the world that beats on whether I am there to hear it or not. The sun rises and sets without needing me at all. It takes so much pressure away to know the world doesn't revolve around Sybil ☺️, sometimes that's easy to forget! I can continue to do my best to be loving and kind in the world, but if I fall down and fail to meet my own standards, it's ok. Life goes on. The sun rises again and tomorrow I get another shot. As the alchemists taught, as above, so below. The internal rhythm echoes the external, energy/vision/will/satisfaction, you name it, rises and falls. In those falling times, I only have to look out and remember that just as the sun rises each day, my inner life will cycle back. Every ebb leads back to a flow. So I take heart and always wait for my internal sunrise.

Morning Poem
by Mary Oliver

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches --
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead --
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging -- there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted -- each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.

the rod and blob, Monotype of the Day #376

Day 11 of Year 2

A rod and bob is the swinging pendulum on a fancy clock. This is a new symbol that has been popping up in my work lately. It will take time to unfold its meaning but I have been thinking a lot about time. In the studio there is almost an absence of time. No matter how long I'm in there working, it only feels like a few minutes. I'm regularly surprised at how late it is when I emerge. This is because the artist touches a timeless place while working, the deep well of universal creativity. This week I've been meditating a lot, trying to touch that timelessness and bring it out of the studio and more fully into my life. Making art is a kind of meditation and In the studio there is a spaciousness that allows the pressure of time to disappear. It would be an amazing thing to experience this is daily life. I'm not there yet as this print reflects, but meditation is helping.

Eternity is time
by Angelus Silesius, Trans. Paul Carus

Eternity is time
And time eternity,
Except when we ourselves.
Would make them different be.

the face, Monotype of the Day #351

I had a really lovely day today with a dear old friend. We visited a botanical garden and I was reminded how important it is to step outside of the busyness of life and feel a different pace, trees and plants move to the slow creep of deep unwavering purpose. It's renewing and offers comfort that everything will find its time and place, even and not limited to an artist finding the time to sleep at night! 🙂

The Bright Field
by R. S. Thomas

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

the clock, Monotype of the Day #350

I wasn't happy with yesterday's image so I reworked it today. Even though, I'm trying to stretch myself by using the grey, I need the bright colors. They give me life. It's like a physical craving. So I compromised here and used some grey and some red. I feel happier.😊. The past few days, I've been looking at why I often deny myself these critical moments of rest and non activity which are so essential to the creative process. The hands of the clock have faded from yesterday and my image is done a few hours earlier than usual. This is progress. Change is good.