protected, Monotype of the Day #522

Day 156 of Year 2 (Actually Day 157)

Experimenting again with these more muted tones. It's a fun change and feels really different while working. And, in the spirit of change, I am trying out a new time for posting my daily print: the early evening rather than between midnight and 2AM. I must get more sleep! Posting late only keeps me up. Let me know how this works for you. I may try a few different times until I find the right rhythm. Habit is important, but it's also important to mix it up every once in a while. It shifts the energy and creates new possibilities. Habit makes us feels safe and secure, but rigid things break. So I will keep my daily monotype practice but be flexible with my midnight habit.
NOTE: For those of you who are not night owls, you probably see my daily print the next day so this will seem like two prints in one day! Tomorrow look for my daily print in the evening, not the morning. Again, let me know how this change is for you because I may readjust. xoxo (Poem below the title)- the artist feels

Three Things to Remember
By Mary Oliver

As long as you're dancing, you can break the rules.

Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.

Sometimes there are no rules. -

From Devotions . https://amzn.to/2PWonP0

the artist is all eyes, Monotype of the Day #520

Day 154 of Year 2 (Actually Day 155)

Today an artist friend of mine sent me a really interesting inverted image of my print last night. I loved the way it looked so I set out to make it tonight. Of course when I got to my plate, The Artist had other plans for the artist (me) and this is what came out- something totally completely different! That's why making art is such an adventurous calling, you just never know.

Quatrain 1359
By Rumi, Trans Moyne and Barks

Do you think I know what I am doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it is writing,
or the ball can guess where it is going next. -

From Open Secret, Versions of Rumi https://amzn.to/2rEqBuy

onward, Monotype of the Day #519

Day 153 of Year 2 (Actually Day 154)

Working with this orange color is reviving. It warms me physically from the inside of my chest. Sometimes I just need to receive that energy, like a medicine.
I don't think I've posted tonight's poem before, fingers crossed! 🙂 It's time to start marking my books so it's clear what I've posted.

prayer, Monotype of the Day #518

Day 152 of Year 2 (Actually Day 153)

Making art is an act of prayer. The clearer this becomes to me the more, I begin to suspect that every moment of our lives is a prayer too. The seed of the sacred is there waiting to be watered. I learned this and so much more working in the studio. The process of making art changes, trains, and transforms an artist. The product, a work of art, is a bonus gift. Working is everything. It is a prayer of gratitude to the world.

always listening, Monotype of the Day #517

Day 151 of Year 2 (Actually Day 152)

I almost didn't get this one done tonight. I had another project that had to be completed. I'm tired, but I did it anyway. Just a quick sketch to keep the creative juices going. So many good things happened today, it's funny that this image is so grouchy. I think it's my body speaking and not my spirit. "GO TO BED, it is 1:30am!" I will listen. Until tomorrow. xo

When They Sleep
by Rolf Jacobsen, Trans. Robert Hedin

All people are children when they sleep.
there’s no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.
If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
– God, teach me the language of sleep.

From the website Poetry Chaikhana https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2010/06/14/rolf-jacobsen-when-they-sleep/
https://amzn.to/36nAM56

the boat at midnight, Monotype of the Day #516

Day 150 of Year 2 (Actually Day 151)

Today in conversation with the wonderful @kwaggmac, owner and director of @clerestoryfineart, I finally realized one of the meanings of the boat image. It comes from this poem that I have admired for longer than I can remember by Dogen, a 13th century Japanese Zen monk.

Midnight.
No waves,
no wind, the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.

by Dogen, Trans. Stephen Mitchell
From The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry https://amzn.to/2LIeH9s
The empty boat is a symbol of the Self emptied of self so it can bear Light into the world. When this image comes through, it's bringing that energy to remind me, let go, let go, empty yourself so creativity can flow through.

the sprout, Monotype of the Day #515

Day 149 of Year 2 (Actually Day 150)

“The seed is in the ground. Now may we rest in hope, while darkness does its work.” ~ Wendell Berry

Sometimes it's necessary get out of the studio, take a deep breath, and air out my head. Creativity is a beautiful mystery whose mechanisms are veiled. We aren't meant to know how it works, just to receive and bring that energy into the physical world. Getting out of the studio occasionally disengages the mind and gives space for that mystery to unfold and develop unconsciously. It releases control so surprising things can happen upon returning to work. Like a seed maturing underground, we know nothing of what is afoot until the first shoots break through. That is the beautiful adventure of being an artist.

the sprout
#monotypeoftheday
Year 2, Day 149
(Total project days 515)

sprouting, Monotype of the Day #514

Day 148 of Year 2 (Actually Day 149)

I'm not sure how I feel about this image. Part of this project is to post the good days and the off days, but I am excited that a new symbol is coming in: the sprouting seed, new growth. Today, new growth manifested as a shift in perspective. I realized my relationship to prepping for my show needed an overhaul. I've been pushing which is never a good space for making art. Art is about allowing what is to come through. Pushing creates a barrier to the natural creative flow. I decided to relax and trust all would be well, to wait and see how things unfold in their own time. Immediately three wonderful things happened. 1) A good friend popped in and helped look at a piece that was stalled, 2) I had a huge breakthrough with that piece, and 3) another friend offered me his truck to move work, a lovely gesture. All of a sudden I went from using my energy to push against what felt like a massive wall of work, to people showing up to help me. A lot got done today and I am much more at ease. What a difference a shift in perspective can make.

the river, Monotype of the Day #512

Day 146 of Year 2 (Actually Day 147)

It's coming down to the wire to prep my solo show in January. I have enough work to fill the gallery several times over, but I have a few new pieces in the works that I'm super excited about. They are very large and multi sensory and, of course, need work! Also the sheer immensity of the task of photographing, color correcting, and inventorying my monotypes as well as, placing them into portfolios by month, etc. can feel overwhelming at times. There is so much to do that it's taking a lot of perseverance, to get myself into the print studio. I'm definitely not going to let busyness get in my way though. I'm always glad when I do make my print. It's like a breath of fresh air in the midst of it all. When I'm finished, I feel certainty that all the work for my show will be done. (poem below the title)

Don't Make Lists
By Dorothy Walters

Every day a new flower rises
from your body's fresh soil.
Don't go around looking
for fallen petals
in a fairy tale, when you've
got the golden plant
right here, now,
shooting forth in light from your eyes,
your awakening crown.

Don't make lists,
or explore ancient accounts.
Forget everything you know
and open.

From Marrow of Flame https://amzn.to/2sMv4v8

the observer, Monotype of the Day #510

Day 144 of Year 2 (Actually Day 145)

I spent most of the day in the ER. Don't worry, I'm fine. One of the downsides of having a chronic illness is your doctors become overly cautious. After a battery of tests and a waterless day of fasting they sent me home with absolutely nothing new wrong. I arrived at my door at 12:30am. After taking a drink I headed right for the studio. I observed a lot of callousness in the ER today. It's a place filled with people wanting to help. They've devoted their lives to it and I honor them. Yet still, people are people and they get busy, they get upset, they have their judgements. It's a microcosm of the world at large. The trick to being in the ER is to not take it all personally. It's bloody freezing, your fingers are turning blue and no one remembers to bring you a blanket when you've asked. The best tactic is to watch what's happening and see yourself from above as a tiny cog or even an ant in the ER machine. If you attach to your upsets it only brings more suffering. I admit I struggled a bit with this today, more than usual, but in the end I accepted my position and left without carrying any emotional baggage. Every experience is an opportunity for spiritual training. I'm grateful for another day of learning. I'm grateful that I was still able to make my print. xo