foreshadowing, Monotype of the Day #282

Unpacking yesterday's image a bit more. Thanks to @stephenellcock who shared a great synchronous image earlier today of the ascension of Christ from the Middle Ages. The Christ figure is being raised into the air. The figure in today's print and my print from yesterday is descending but they share the dangling feet in common. My energy is moving to Earth. Something is being born.

stepping out, Monotype of the Day #281

I'm really interested in the feet coming out of the chest window. Some change is in process. Where will it go? That's the adventure of making art. It is possible to travel without ever leaving your home. Did I post this poem recently? I think I might have. But, if I did, it bears repeating...

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.

sunrise, Monotype of the Day #280

Not sure how I feel about this one, however it's what came out and tomorrow is another day 🙂 The refrain from one of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs, Anthem, always gives me courage to share images that I am inclined to judge:

Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
-Leonard Cohen

I love this video of the song. He is literally in prayer when he sings and the deep humility and reverence with which he thanks his band... I had the privilege of seeing him in concert and every moment was deeply infused with the presence of something greater and a profound connection to the present moment. Such a special human being, he is missed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4U4lXgvorU

One, Monotype of the Day #278

Say I am You
Rumi, Trans. Coleman Barks

I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.

I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark off a stone, a flickering in metal.

Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose and nightingale lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift and the falling away.

What is and what is not.
You who know Jelaluddin,

You are the One in all, say who
I am. Say I am you.

off kilter, Monotype of the Day #274

This isn't the image I wanted to make tonight. I had something else in mind completely but this had to come first. Then there was nothing left for the other image. I hope it will come tomorrow. I feel a like like I was in a battle tonight and once I realized it, I surrendered to the process. But I feel irritated. Some nights are like that. xo

outside the window, Monotype of the Day #273

The body experiences waves of energy. So much of what passes through us is unknowable and not meant for us to understand, just to undergo. There is an alchemical connection between the surface of an artwork, the body, and the spirit. You change one part of this trinity and the other two must necessarily be changed too. I have had to change my spirit more times than I can count to finish a piece of art and I have also seen the act of making art change me spiritually. These past few days, I feel a strong connection between my current health struggles and these window prints. Making this work is releasing an energy that needs to pass out of my body. I do not understand or know the content of this energy but I feel the profound need to work so that the body/ spirit / art trinity can be transformed and healed. I am being nurtured by creativity, the unceasing flow of change and growth which undergirds all of life.

"so many fish long for bait", Monotype of the Day #266

The title is a quote from the poem below. This phrase touches me deeply, we don't always know what is best for us. Our desires are not always for our highest good. Sometimes the thing is just to breathe and wait to be filled by the unknown as our desires pass us by. This is a lesson in trust and trust is one of foundations of making art (and also of healing).

Cooling Off
by Wang Wei
English version by Willis Barnstone
Original Language Chinese

Clear waters drift through the immensity of a tall forest.
In front of me a huge river mouth
receives the long wind.
Deep ripples hold white sand
and white fish swimming as in a void.
I sprawl on a big rock,
billows nourishing my humble body.
I gargle with water and wash my feet.
A fisherman pauses out on the surf.
So many fish long for bait. I look
only to the east with its lotus leaves

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/W/WeiWang/CoolingOff/index.html

the artist is held, Monotype of the Day #265

265.jpg

I keep using this title but I guess that’s the artist’s prerogative. 😊

God's Grandeur
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.