a light in the forest, Monotype of the Day #692

Day 322 of Year 2 (Actually Day 327)

I found it difficult to cooperate with my materials tonight, that happens sometimes and it's ok. I let it go, tomorrow is another day. We are in a period of great change so I've posted one of my favorite poems on the subject. This is a time of listening among other things. Listening is active, not passive and deep listening has the power to transform.

Want the change
By Rilke, Trans. Barrows and Macy

Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming
a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.

From In Praise of Mortality https://amzn.to/3ctFu4c

boat, Monotype of the Day #685

Day 315 of Year 2 (Actually Day 320)

Tonight I made a print with 6 layers hoping each time it would work but it never came together. I had to force myself to stop and make this posted print for tonight. I will revisit the layered piece tomorrow. Sometimes work needs space to unfold. Tonight's piece is at the opposite extreme, it's under layered. But, that's okay, not every night is a success and success is not exactly my goal. Though I prefer successful pieces, my goal is to stick with the process, listen, and remain present. I am so deep into my garden that it's hard to pull my energy out and work in my studio. I tend to be extremely singled minded so I am happy I am able to keep this project going in the face of my garden's siren song. Tonight's poem relates more to my garden than this print I think, but you be the judge.

O Sweet, Irrational Worship
By Thomas Merton

Wind and a bobwhite
And the afternoon sun.

By ceasing to question the sun
I have become light,

Bird and wind.

My leaves sing.

I am earth, earth

All these lighted things
Grow from my heart.
A tall, spare pine

Stands like the initial of my first
Name when I had one.

When I had a spirit,
When I was on fire
When this valley was
Made out of fresh air
You spoke my name
In naming Your silence:
O sweet, irrational worship!

I am earth, earth

My heart's love
Bursts with hay and flowers.
I am a lake of blue air
In which my own appointed place
Field and valley
Stand reflected.

I am earth, earth

Out of my grass heart
Rises the bobwhite.

Out of my nameless weeds
His foolish worship.

Selected Poems of Thomas Merton https://amzn.to/2M4DVyL

portal, Monotype of the Day #684

Day 314 of Year 2 (Actually Day 319)

Most of my creative energy is going into my garden right now. When I get to the studio, I always have plans to make flowers and plants but this is what comes out. These prints feel like fragment of a greater image. Once my garden is under control I plan to work on larger sheets of paper to see what happens.

rising, Monotype of the Day #681

Day 311 of Year 2 (Actually Day 316)

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden this week. It is renewing, new life budding everywhere. I'm particularly taken with the weeds. Unwanted and untended but unstoppable, they will have their say. Their vigor for life in the worst circumstances is admirable and inspiring. This print has nothing to do with weeds or gardens but there is something in both that is deeply hopeful and sustaining like a sunrise. My love to all those who are sick or suffering.

A Purification
By Wendell Berry

At start of spring I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my good luck;
have listened to too much noise;
have been inattentive to wonders;
have lusted after praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.

From New Collected Poems https://amzn.to/2XqlI44

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.