restless night, Monotype of the Day #648

Day 278 of Year 2 (Actually Day 283)

Last night I tried doing a print overlaying a dark blue as a face onto a bed of ochre images like the piece above. It didn't turn out as I expected. I thought that since the ochre ink was wet it would bleed through the blue. No such luck, but it did provide an interesting varied subtlety to the piece which a flat underlayer of color does not. Lesson learned. So tonight I decided to do that process in reverse, ochre on top of blue. This piece was supposed to be the blue underlayer but I liked it too much to print on top of it 🙂. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a ghost print and try it with the ochre face as an overlayer as planned. We shall see! This is one of the things that makes art such an adventure. Art materials have plans of their own, they dream and actively partner with the artist. Sometimes our plans sync, sometimes materials will fight us all the way. This complex relationship is a subtext in all material works of art and is essential in grounding the artist. It is the earth calling us back. Our materials silently chant, "though your vision soars high above. you are clay and bound by the frailty of the world."

the key to listening, Monotype of the Day #647

Day 277 of Year 2 (Actually Day 282)

This print has beautiful subtle color but you can't see much of it in this picture. Not every work is internet friendly. So my mind automatically goes to, should I post it? Is my goal to succeed at social media or remain true to my monotype of the day project? My first allegiance is to art and I will not let an outside force dictate or change my work. A large part of this project is to capture whatever happens each day without judgment and help reveal the ups and downs (both inner and outer) that are part of the process of being an artist. It would be easy to augment this piece to look better on screen but it would suffer and I would be changing to the work to please someone else. The act of dulling artistic vision has an insidious effect on an artist. Slowly, change after change, and an artist begins to lose the uniqueness of their voice. This monotype a day project has forced me to learn to stand my ground. So many times photos have not done justice to the work. But, like so many other things in life, I have learned this is just a spiritual muscle that must be built. So I post this image today and hope that sometime you might see the original in person. My love to all those who are sick or suffering. xo

dawn breaks, Monotype of the Day #646

Day 276 of Year 2 (Actually Day 281)

Posting early tonight, well before midnight! I've been at this project for one year and nine months. It's hard not to repeat poems from time to time, but some poems are a joy to repeat.

Thirst
By Mary Oliver

Another morning and I wake with thirst
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked
and hunched over my books past the
hour and the bell; grant me, in your
mercy, a little more time. Love for the
earth and love for you are having such a
long conversation in my heart. Who
knows what will finally happen or
where I will be sent, yet already I have
given a great many things away, expect-
ing to be told to pack nothing, except the
prayers which, with this thirst, I am
slowly learning.

From Thirst https://amzn.to/2XImpYh (This was my first book of Mary Oliver poems, a wonderful introduction to her work.)

dream of the sky at night, Monotype of the Day #645

Day 275 of Year 2 (Actually Day 280)

Still playing. I've been exploring this looser technique for the last 4 nights. I'd like to acknowledge a very generous artist, Lisa Pressman. Her style of art is quite different from my own. It is abstract and full of emotion in very beautiful ways. Recently, she did a Facebook live session and I watched her work. I love the way she makes art, working on multiple paintings at once and picking up scraps of paper, leftover paint, etc using them freely with complete trust in her process. It took a while for this to filter into my system but seeing her work helped me be freer and more trusting. I feel like a weight has been lifted. I write this to thank her but also because it is a great example. We all leave footprints in the world and most of us will never know the extent to which our being here matters. If I hadn't written this, Lisa would not know her influence on me. I know you, reading this now, have positively impacted people in ways you will never know. You matter. This is such an importance and difficult lesson for many artists to learn. It requires radical trust. The certitude that the creative process matters though we may never know how. Maybe it changes the artist, maybe it goes into the world and effects someone deeply, the possibilities are vast. The only thing to do is put one foot in front of the other and trust the footprints we leave behind do their work.

blood moon, Monotype of the Day #644

Day 274 of Year 2 (Actually Day 279)

Enjoying the freedom of play the last few days with these layered spaces. I've written about the importance of play to an artist before. When you play you are not judging, you have no expectations, and you are just in the expansive present moment. Judgment makes us small and narrows possibilities. We know this and yet can't stop. The word play is a way of tricking the brain into turning that mental habit off. Really all art making is play. The Artist delights in the artist, the Source of all delight generously spills into the world through so many imperfect earthen vessels.

below the surface, Monotype of the Day #643

Day 273 of Year 2 (Actually Day 278)

Something is ready to shift in my work, but it's below the surface. I can feel it bubbling just out of reach. Often when I hit a rough patch, like the last few weeks, it's because something old needs to crumble to make room for something new. It's uncomfortable to say the least. No one likes to make work they don't feel good about. But every artist will tell you this common experience: they hated their work at the time but looking back, they find it was actually okay and sometimes even good. Our way of seeing is shaped by judgment and expectations. Our inner world has to shift and our narrow sight has to open to bring work to the next level. Change is uncomfortable, letting go of expectations and desires can be painful. But a deep embrace of whatever discomfort we are going through brings deep transformation and healing. This healed energy is what comes through in the new work and elevates it from the old. I know this will come. Patience Sybil, patience.

waiting to open, Monotype of the Day #641

Day 271 of Year 2 (Actually Day 276)

I feel at a bit of a loss in the studio right now. With the puppy, my studio time has been limited and I'm missing that internal spacious where work starts to hatch. I always turn to the Wendell Berry piece below the title when I feel this way.

The Real Work
Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

From Standing Words https://amzn.to/34xo8Rm

tree of life, Monotype of the Day #640

Day 270 of Year 2 (Actually Day 275)

I'm focusing on setting my house in order. Each day my family and I are spending an allotted amount of time stripping away the clutter of 7 years in this house. It feels liberating. The alchemists believed that every external act of healing has a corresponding internal one. I usually feel this effect in my studio. The studio is my great teacher and the lessons learned there spill out into my life, And this goes both ways, strides made outside of the studio inevitably show up in my work. So although I would love to be spending every minute in my studio, I must follow the energy and trust that it all serves my work. At the very least, I will finally have a clean and organized home, I hope! :)

illuminated, Monotype of the Day #638

Day 268 of Year 2 (Actually Day 273)

The puppy, who I love, is completely exhausting me. My tank is running low and it's taking a great deal of perseverance to keep going on this project. That's ok though. It can't always be easy or joyful. Sometimes it's just a matter of trusting that soon the tide will turn and you will be filled again. This is the way of the artist, radical trust that the moment we are in is necessary to our process though the outcome is a mystery, Every ebb has its flow and faith in this immutable cycle of life can help carry us through challenging times. My love to all those who are sick or suffering. xo

you are the key, Monotype of the Day #637

637.jpg

Day 267 of Year 2 (Actually Day 272)

Sometime it feels like we are very small and insignificant in the face of world events, but there is one place where we can always effect change, inside.

Instructions
By Danna Faulds

Hold the silence like
a mother holds her child.
Hold your ground while
all around you structures
crumble into nothing.
Focus on the still point
in your center until you
are filled with light, until
Spirit speaks to you in
words you understand,
until the love in your
heart grows so strong
it must be shared.

From Prayers to the Infinite https://amzn.to/2RoF47y

root system, Monotype of the Day #636

Day 266 of Year 2 (Actually Day 271)

Poem below the title. Note for my Patreon.com subscribers, Patreon is down tonight. I will post as soon as I am able. xo

Can You Imagine?
by Mary Oliver

For example, what the trees do
not only in lightning storms
or the watery dark of a summer’s night
or under the white nets of winter
but now, and now, and now – whenever
we’re not looking. Surely you can’t imagine
they don’t dance, from the root up, wishing
to travel a little, not cramped so much as wanting
a better view, or more sun, or just as avidly
more shade – surely you can’t imagine they just
stand there loving every
minute of it, the birds or the emptiness, the dark rings
of the years slowly and without a sound
thickening, and nothing different unless the wind,
and then only in its own mood, comes
to visit, surely you can’t imagine
patience, and happiness, like that.

From Devotions https://amzn.to/2nlMY5J

groundwork, Monotype of the Day #634

Day 264 of Year 2 (Actually Day 269)

Many of us are in the midst of deconstructing, if temporarily, a way of life. Routines are scrambled and the things we thought would come to pass have not. This is a moment of letting go, of ebb. But if we look to nature, we see that every ebb has its flow. It is the retreat of water that allows the wave. In this moment when it seems nothing is happening, the roots of something new and unknown are taking hold. The unknown can be scary and for some more than others. Tonight's poem is for those experiencing anxiety. My love to all who are sick or suffering. xo

This work is paired with "Retrospective" by Jane Hirshfield

Read it here embedded in this article https://www.vox.com/2020/3/21/21173809/book-review-poetry-poems-jane-hirshfield-ledger

from Ledger https://amzn.to/33nvmXF