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.

raising the bar, Monotype of the Day #792

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Day 60 of year 3

I'm returning to my roots. I haven't worked in black ink for at least a year. It's soothing, a mental reset. The colors of my current ink choices have me feeling a bit fed up. Because I'm only able to work with water soluble inks, my palette is considerably limited. Limits can be a good thing, they force you to stretch and think creatively but some times you just need to run free. So I'm giving color a rest for now. Overall, I'm in sort of a weird place with my work the last few weeks. It feels uncomfortable. I'm working on embracing this place of uncertainty rather than judging it. I know whatever is going on, it's necessary to my process. At the same time, my desire to spent more time on larger project is growing. Like many artists, my work has been upended by COVID. Projects that I had been working on for a traditional gallery setting prior to quarantine stopped feeling relevant. Finally though, new projects are beginning to sprout and I look forward to seeing what unfolds. I'm been reading a lot of Rilke lately, the poem below is speaking to me tonight.

I live my life in widening circles
By Rilke, Trans Barrows & Macy

I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not ever complete the last one,
but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, that primordial tower.
I have been circling for thousands of years,
and I still don't know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?

From Rilke's Book of Hours https://amzn.to/2ZxWMJH

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

rise, Monotype of the Day #774

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Day 42 of year 3

Last night I was unsatisfied by the process of making my print. Usually that happens when I'm in my head, when my mind and body are so disconnected that I can't access inner messages. I receive inner guidance as a flash, a combination of a brief image and a physical feeling that is like a drop of ink water, it expands as I physically move and work. Allowing it to naturally and fully unfold requires complete awareness of the body to sense the gentle nudges of guidance. So today I meditated for the first time in ages to get reconnected and almost immediately new images started dropping in. What a relief! Meditation is so essential to my art practice, it's amazing how often I forget that though! This print reminds me of the power available in the present moment.. Today's poem (below the title) is a haiku by the wonderful writer Cheryl Welch from her excellent new book Feather. You can order it here: https://www.welchdesignpublishing.com/

anything at all
can happen at anytime,
live without regret

By Cheryl Welch

From Feather https://www.welchdesignpublishing.com/

opening, Monotype of the Day, Day 773

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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.

wings & the descent, Monotype of the Day #756

Day 24 of Year 3

I'm so happy! No more self portraits, at least for now. However, I am in a bit of a muddle, I'm in that in between stage, the ebb between two flows. Usually I feel a bit lost during these periods. The antidote to this is to keep working but forget about the product. I try to do this anyway, but it is so much more important in an ebb. If you focus on making good work in an ebb you will get frustrated.. This is a major cause of artist block. Instead, I am using this ebb to experiment. I desperately miss cadmium red light. It is such a passionate color and not available in my inks so I'm experimenting with acrylic paint. I had many disasters tonight- paper gluing itself to my plate and tearing, paint drying to quickly, etc. I was fun though. Here are a couple of my attempts. I've barely scratched the surface here. Looking forward to playing some more tomorrow. xo

print 1: wings

print 2: the descent

will you unlock?, Monotype of the Day #695

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Day 325 of Year 2 (Actually Day 330)

Poem below the title. I posted this poem before but this image recalled it strongly for me. This print is about the internal work that is necessary to support change in the external world.

Say I Am You
by Rumi, Trans Moyne & Barks

I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist, and the breathing of evening.

I am wind in the top of a grove, and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of a stone, a flickering in metal.

Both candle and the moth crazy around it.

Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift,

and the falling away. What is, and what isn't.

You who know Jelaluddin, You the one in all,

say who I am. Say I am You.

From Say I am You https://amzn.to/2AaOA8D

dream of Light, Monotype of the Day #679

Day 309 of Year 2 (Actually Day 314)

I am really enjoying my time in the studio these days. I hit such a rough patch a few weeks back that I was actually thinking of giving up this project. I thought maybe it's run its course and I have nothing else to say in monotype. But I stuck with it through weeks of feeling uninspired and like I was repeating myself. Then one day without warning this new style came through. Now I feel renewed and everyday I am learning again. It feels like a bit of a miracle that so much growth sprung from such parched earth. This is the lesson given over and over in the studio, radical trust in process. Sometimes it is uncomfortable, but the dry patches are needed to move forward just as the ocean must recede to produce a new wave. It is the cycle of life and creativity.