the artist at rest, Monotype of the Day #296

To say I have moved a lot would be an understatement. Every 1-2 years since I was 18 until about 5 years ago when we finally settled on this house. Now, my husband refuses to move (and can you blame him? 😊 ). I have the itch to go again but I'm breathing through it because I want to spend my packing time as studio time instead. But through all my moves, I've lost some precious books including the one by the poet below. Thank God for the internet. I can still find some of my favorites, though not all. My next sale will go to replacing some of my collection. Anyway, tonight's monotype brought this poem to mind.

Love came and emptied me of self
by Abu-Said Abil-Kheir, Persia 10th century

Love came and emptied me of self,
every vein and every pore,
made into a container to be filled by the Beloved.
Of me, only a name is left,
the rest is You my Friend, my Beloved.

xo

emergence, Monotype of the Day #295

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I may do another layer on this one tomorrow. The imagery is very similar to yesterday, but showing some movement forward by emerging from the egg. I don't feel quite satisfied. But this might be because I am in the middle of emerging. It's an uncomfortable place to be caught up in the winds of becoming something new. Because the work is so reflective of my own interior state, sometimes it's hard to separate how I feel about the image from how I feel about the process I'm going through. In days, weeks, or even months, I'll be able to tell, but by then it will be so far past I will be taken up with other things. Today's poem, by Ansari, a Persian poet from the 11th century, is about becoming:

If thou canst walk on water
Thou art no better than a straw.
If thou canst fly into the air
Thou art no better than a fly.
Conquer thy heart
That thou mayest become somebody.
- Ansari (11th century Persia)

xo

gestation, Monotype of the Day #293

I can't stop reading Theodore Roethke today. His poem, Forcing House, resonates so much. A forcing house a place in which the growth of plants is artificially hastened. My life has definitely felt like a spiritual forcing house lately. With each physical setback, there has been a corresponding flowering of internal growth. Illness lays waste to the ego, softens the heart, and teaches a deep level of compassion if you are open to grow.
I am so grateful to be here and to be feeling so strong and so alive, more than I felt in a very long time. If it were not for the kindness of my family, the care of my doctor team, and the blessings of good fortune, I would not be here. It is the confluence of these things and the deep pulse of life, the greening within me that allows me to embrace my forcing house.


Forcing House
by Theodore Roethke

Vines tougher than wrists
And rubbery shoots,
Scums, mildews, smuts along stems,
Great cannas or delicate cyclamen tips,
All pulse with the knocking pipes
That drip with sweat,
Sweat and drip,
Swelling the roots with steam and stench,
Shooting up lime and dung and ground bones,-
Fifty summers in motion at once,
As the live heat bellows from pipes and pots.

the artist is listening, Monotype of the Day #292

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3 things today:

1) I'm still working on a smaller-sized plate to keep loose and out of my head. I really had so much fun printing today and it lead me to...


2) ...a break though in my artwork unrelated to my monotypes. There is a large piece on my wall that has been sitting there for over a year. I work at it from time to time but it never flows. I realized that my idea of what the piece should be was blocking and constraining me. So many ideas and rules are absorbed into our heads that we don't even know are there. Just looking at art history books, paintings are symmetrical or even painting is a separate category from say printmaking. This all gets mixed into my own ideas about how I would like things to be. This large work had to sit for so long until I noticed my own rigidity and got out of my head. I'll post some in progress pictures soon.

xoxo

the artist has power, Monotype of the Day #290

I'm really beginning to feel better and it puts me in mind of Hildegard of Bingen's story which always inspired me even before I fell ill so many years ago. She had visions that she was to leave her nunnery and go start her own convent, but she kept silent. Her silence caused her to become sicker and sicker until so was so ill she could not even be lifted from her bed. But as soon as she shared her visions, she was healed. This story reminds me how important it is to share what we have been given in this world and for me in particular, to keep working. It has been a bear of a year. For a full year I was on a liquid diet and truly did not know if I would ever eat solid food again. I fought, and I am eating again. I battled all year long and through much of it, I had my daily prints. These prints have sustained me, healed me, and given me vision and hope to carry on. They have layers, one is for the world and another is a very personal message of love and compassion for me as an artist from The Artist. I am grateful for this year because I have learned and softened so much. I am also so grateful for finally turning the corner. Hildegard uses the word "veriditas". It can be translated in many ways, but it is fecund, pulse of life and change the surges through creation causing everything to grow. I has seen it translated as "greening" which I love. I had the impulse to bring green in today and I believe it is the beginning of my reconnection to veriditas. xoxo

incubation, Monotype of the Day #289

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Today it occurred to me my images are hard to see on instagram: the small format hides too much of the detail.(Facebook allows you to see more.) It sets up and interesting internal problem: will I make the work that comes or will I let my ego's need for validation allow me to change my work to fit the needs of social media? So far I have resisted the temptation to change. 😊 So, as insulation from temptation, I'm including a quick video for detail. Still working on an earlier print/posting time, tomorrow is another day. xo

the artist is all hands, Monotype of the Day #288

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The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

Tools make all the difference in my life. Though my hands, my greatest tools, are locked up in knots I never feel that as a limitation when I work. Instead, I feel the push to think outside of the box and find new solutions and tools to accomplish my vision. There is a strange kind of freedom in being forced to abandon the expected and ordinary way of doing things. It frees your mind. It also teaches humility because sometimes tools aren't enough and I have to ask for help. It’s difficult for me accept this sometimes. My art practice is about allowing work to flow through me and, honestly, understanding that I can't do everything on my own softens me. It helps the creative flow come through. How we see things is a choice and so much depends on that choice.

Prayer, Monotype of the Day #285

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It's been a good week. I'm finally getting my energy back and I'm really enjoying rediscovering my poetry collection, particularly Unseen Rain, Quatrains of Rumi. Here is another, translation Coleman Barks and John Moyne

Begin as creation, become a creator.
Never wait at a barrier.
In this kitchen stocked with fresh food,
why sit content with a cup of warm water?
- Rumi

foreshadowing, Monotype of the Day #282

Unpacking yesterday's image a bit more. Thanks to @stephenellcock who shared a great synchronous image earlier today of the ascension of Christ from the Middle Ages. The Christ figure is being raised into the air. The figure in today's print and my print from yesterday is descending but they share the dangling feet in common. My energy is moving to Earth. Something is being born.