The Fish, Monotype of the Day #228

I've posted this poem before, but I love it so I'm posting it again!

A fish cannot drown in water
by Mechthild of Magdeburg

A fish cannot drown in water,
A bird does not fall in air.
In the fire of creation,
God doesn't vanish:
The fire brightens.
Each creature God made
must live in its own true nature;
How could I resist my nature,
That lives for oneness with God? (English version by Jane Hirshfield
Original Language German)

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/M/MechthildofM/Afishcannotd/index.html

Womb, Monotype of the Day #227

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Something different today, an experiment with a technique to be used in a more detailed piece in the future. First, I'm almost out of ink and paper so I'm back to my smallest plate (8"x10"). The different plate sizes completely changes my imagery. It's so interesting what an influence this has. Tonight I experimented with blocking out sections of the plate with paper so only certain areas print. I tried this once before around Christmas also with a similar, though more complex image. I don't know why this image is coming up again, but I powerfully felt the need to make it tonight. It must be a stepping stone on the way to something new or maybe just an excuse to post this poem :)

In every moment I am free
by Ayaz

In every moment I am free
To turn my face towards the sun
And receive Your blessing
The content
The infinite ebb and flow of sand and dust
Does not matter
The constant emptiness of Your regard
Ripens me
And turns my heart
Inside out to reveal the sun
Blazing inside.

From: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/A/Ayaz/Ineverymomen/index.html

The Vessel, Monotype of the Day #226

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posting a monotype a day is that I can't judge my own work. Without fail, the pieces I'm reluctant to post get the most attention. Some days it's easier to suspend judgment than others. Interestingly, it's just as important to suspend judgement on pieces I like as it is on pieces I don't. I can't afford to get stuck in yesterday's piece. If I like something too much it can start to control what I'm doing today. I don't want to mentally repeat myself. Often, similar images flow through, but that's different. I see each piece as information being given to me, if images repeats, it's obviously something The Artist feels I need to hear. If I consciously choose to repeat images, that's the opposite. That's me refusing to listen.

Alchemist's Flask #2, Monotype of the Day #223

I used to be obsessed with the medieval alchemists who are responsible for so many of the recipes for early pigments. I made pigments from scratch, poured over ancient recipes, and even tried my hand at translating (very poorly!) a few from Latin. Much of the language is symbolic and it sometimes requires a lot of experimentation to get a recipe to work. I carry many of their ideas into my work today. People think of alchemists as trying to change lead, what they considered a base and impure metal, into gold, which was thought of as perfected matter. Some were acting out of greed, but the true alchemist was trying to heal matter of its imperfections. Their’s was a deeply devotional practice fueled by belief in the Divine. They believed in the concept "as above, so below (as in heaven, so on earth)". So, the physical world and the spiritual world were inseparably connected. For the alchemist, every external action in the physical world had a corresponding internal action. So when they healed the external world with their alchemical recipes, transforming base metals to more pure substances, they considered that they were also healing their internal selves. This idea fascinates me and I often find myself so connected to my own work that when I make intentional changes to a piece it really does change me. Alchemists often described their chemical reactions with symbolic drawings in flasks. The flasks in this series are describing my internal alchemy not actual alchemy recipes.

what goes in must come out, Monotype of the Day #218

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(make sure to spot the fish head in the feet🐟)
This print brings to mind of one of my favorite poems (below). "Want the change", is at the heart of being an artist. The creative act by it's very nature changes us. Creativity has its own purpose which is, in part, to polish us down to our finest selves. But for that to happen we must surrender and allow creativity to flow through unhampered. This is one of the reasons I started the monotype a day project. I have to show up even when (like tonight) I don't want to, that in itself forces me to surrender to the process. This is a larger-sized print- 22"x30".

Sonnets To Orpheus, Part Two, XII
Rainer Maria Rilke

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 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.”

the artist goes fishing, Monotype of the Day #217

A good day in the studio working on a larger piece that's been hanging around a while. (I'll post picture of it soon.) Sometimes a skeleton of a piece drops in. I tack it on my wall and then I have to live with it for a while until I catch up. I've finally caught up with this piece. This makes me happy, it means I'm expanding and making more room for creative flow. A good day indeed

the artist finds strength, Monotype of the Day #216

An artist must be jealous of their time alone. Every small moment must be gathered close or else risk missing the next message from The Artist, shepard of all creativity.

A Spiritual Journey
by Wendell Berry

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.