the gift, Monotype of the Day #340

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I've talked before about my relationship as an artist to The Artist, the source of all creativity. I am the glove for The Artist's hand. That doesn't mean I have no impact, a glove changes the way a hand moves and experiences the world. There is a fundamental value to creating and living in partnership with the fecund stream of creativity that undergirds all of life. It is sustaining, healing, and allows growth and transformation. I felt my heart open from making this piece. How could I go on without this dear conversation?

No One Here but Him*
by Rumi, Trans. by Andrew Harvey

Watching my hand; He is moving it.
Hearing my voice; He is speaking…
Walking from room to room —
No one here but Him. *If I could alter today's poem, I would exchange the word "him" for "them". I don’t think gender comes into this

self-portrait on the occasion of my birthday, Monotype of the Day #339

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On my birthday, I thought a self-portrait would be appropriate. Birthday's are a good time for self reflection. It's been a tough year filled with challenges and transitions, but I'm pleased to report I'm still here, happily working, and feeling grateful. The obstacles of this year have helped me grow and softened and opened my heart. Difficulties can be an opportunity for growth. My feeling is, if I have to go through it, I might as well use it as a vehicle for internal transformation. I want to make my dark pits into mines for gold. I want to be the hero of my story, not the victim. Of course, this is not always an easy thing to do and it is made immeasurably easier by the support of my friends and family. I've said this before, but would not be here today without all of you. My gratitude knows no bounds. xoxo

Love After Love
by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door,
in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread.
Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Flow, Monotype of the Day #338

I hope everyone had a happy Father's Day! xoxo

Effortlessly
by Mechthild of Magdeburg, translated by Jane Hirshfield

Effortlessly,
Love flows from God into man,
Like a bird
Who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
Thus we move in His world
One in body and soul,
Though outwardly separate in form.
As the Source strikes the note,
Humanity sings --
The Holy Spirit is our harpist,
And all strings
Which are touched in Love
Must sound.

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/M/MechthildofM/Effortlessly/index.html From Women In Praise of the Sacred https://amzn.to/2W9x1xz

Moonlight, Monotype of the Day #337

I discovered a fix for my stiff ink. Now that I’ve solved that, I look forward to playing with mixing color more. These inks are highly pigmented and the colors are so strong I can physically feel them. It will be powerful to explore that a little more, however, my work doesn’t always cooperate with my plans so we shall see! In the meantime, I’m continuing to chip away at documenting my prints. It’s maddening to take so much time from working, but it has to be done. Resistance is futile. 😊

Tonight’s poem is by Kobayashi Isa, trans. Robert Hass

Full moon;
My ramshackle hut
Is what it is

xoxo
PS Just a little geekiness here for Star Trek fans, I just quoted the Borg and when I wrote the poet’s name below, I saw it was Kobayashi, as in Kobayashi Maru! A funny synchronicity 😊

the artist is sustained, Monotype of the Day #335

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I literally felt revived by the red from yesterday, almost like it was blood coursing in my veins. Tomorrow I may need to explore it more. We shall see... Tonight's image put me in mind of this poem from the Tao Te Ching. The creative flow passes through an artist, nourishing and healing as it continues on it's way. Artists learn over time to submit to it's call, not to grasp and control but to allow it to unfold. Making art is about giving, not possessing. The sage in this poem is a good model for the artist to aspire to.

Tao Te Ching #2
by Lao Tzu, Trans Sam Hamill

Beauty and ugliness have one origin.
Name beauty, and ugliness is.
Recognizing virtue recognizes evil.

Is and is not produce one another.
The difficult is born in the easy,
long is defined by short, the high by the low.
Instrument and voice achieve one harmony.
Before and after have places.

That is why the sage can act without effort
and teach without words,
nurture things without possessing them,
and accomplish things without expecting merit:

only one who makes no attempt to possess it
cannot lose it.

the egg, Monotype of the Day #334

Experimenting with different ways of working the new ink. I'm still struggling with the stiffness. It's inhibiting my spontaneity. Trying to get some of that back with this print. I have to say it's making me feel a bit cranky, it's like having a spat with your spouse. But I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel, I just have to keep at it.

I stand and look in the dark under a cloud
by Walt Whitman

I stand and look in the dark under a cloud
But I see in the distance where the sun shines,
I see the thin haze on the tall white steeples of the city,-
I see the glistening of the waters in the distance.

the rose, Monotype of the Day #333

Tonight I have a new green and a new blue. It's always good for the soul to try new things. And 333, what a satisfyingly symmetrical number! I'm rapidly coming up on a year of prints. I've been trying to photograph this body of work for several months. The learning curve has been steep. I keep thinking I have everything right only to find I've miss another detail. However, I think I've finally figured it out. I photographed about a half of the pieces today. It was truly an experience to see so much of this year again and how much the monotypes have evolved from where I started. I really felt a deep sense of power of working and not giving up. I have been transformed by this process and I felt filled up viewing the results even as I was doing one of the least fun tasks for an artist. I feel endless gratitude as an artist to The Artist who is the source of all creativity. I love this poem about the Source within us.

The Path of Amazement
by Seyyid Seyfullah Nizamoglu, trans. Jennifer Ferraro and Latif Bolat

I cannot say who it is I am I am amazed, I am amazed!

I cannot call this self ‘myself’ I am amazed, I am amazed!

Who is in my eyes seeing?
Who is in my heart enduring?
Who is inhaling and exhaling? I am amazed, I am amazed!

Who is speaking with my tongue?
Who is listening with my ears?
Who is understanding with my mind? I am amazed, I am amazed!

Who is stepping with these feet?
Who is tasting with my mouth?
Who is chewing and who swallowing? I am amazed, I am amazed!

Who holds these riches in his hand?
Who is the one throwing them away?
Who is buying and who selling? I am amazed, I am amazed!

Why is there life coursing below my skin?
Why are my eyes bloodshot from crying?
Why this religion, why this faith? I am amazed, I am amazed!

O Seyyid Nizamoglu, hear this:
Everything comes from the One.
Abandon yourself to this mighty beauty I am amazed, I am amazed!

everything is coming up roses, Monotype of the Day #332

I'm not satisfied with my green. The options are limited. I've ordered a different blue and yellow so we shall see. On the bright side though, after releasing a lot of difficult experiences through my prints the past few days, something new has bloomed. The emptier an artist can become, the more they can be filled.

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken
by Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

inflamed, Monotype of the Day #331

The work over the past few days has been about releasing past experiences that are still trapped in my body. During the creative act, there is a real transformative relationship between the physical body and the physical object of art. Energies can be released and transferred back and forth bypassing the mind. Art made with intention can absorb the negative experiences and energies of the artist like a sponge, and bring healing. An artist can also make conscious choices and changes to a work of art so that they can be absorbed by the body. I have experienced profound changes both ways while working. Tonight, this piece pulled a lot from me. I felt a great relief when it was done.

In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

the fist, Monotype of the Day #330

Thinking about everything I’ve been through recently and the uses of adversity. It is a choice how we see and experience the world.

Pain
by Kahlil Gibran

And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.
And he said:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen,
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

red-handed, Monotype of the Day #329

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I love this poem, it gives strength.

Self Pity
by D. H. Lawrence

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

for the birds, Monotype of the Day #328

Some days you just fight with your materials. Maybe it's the humidity or the fact that you didn't clean up enough last time, maybe the ink gods are on the warpath. At any rate, it's a wonderful opportunity to practice surrender. Somethings are just not meant to be and if the artist can let go of what they wanted to happen and let the materials lead the way it may lead to new discoveries. Tonight I learned a few things so, even with a bit of frustration, it was a good night. I can't judge the print without projecting tonight's experience on it so I will trust in the fundamental importance of the creative and let others worry about the result. xoxo

annunciation, Monotype of the Day #327

Learning to use this new ink. It's oil based and much stiffer to work with. I may have to heat it a bit to get the looseness I desire. But for now it's a good exercise in working in a different way. I felt a bit worn out by life tonight. I needed to work to get my head on straight and I did. I am so grateful for every moment I can connect again to my creative flow and be renewed.

This work is paired with by "Optimism" by Jane Hirshfield

Read it here: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/optimism/