i surrender dear, Monotype of the Day #407

Day 42 of Year 2

A quick image tonight to get out of my head. Working fast from time to time is really important. It keeps you honest and combats over-working and over-thinking both of which kill art. Usually, I roll my plate with ink and then wipe it away to find the image. It's a mysterious and adventurous process watching an image reveal itself. Tonight tough, I did the opposite. I used the ink to draw an image on top of the ghost from last night. It feels so different to work in this way. The ink has less of a voice in the process and I felt more power and control but less mystery. I may explore this technique more, we shall see.

The Guest House
By Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

the unknown, Monotype of the Day #406

Day 41 of Year 2

The unknown calls to an artist. It is filled with both promise and fear. While studying medieval mysticism in college, I was struck by a book called The Cloud of Unknowing. A lot of it centers around the need to let go of the language describing God, because that only puts limits on something that is limitless. I love the idea of applying this concept to the creative process. Imagine consciously unknowing, letting go of, all thoughts and judgements that create boundaries for your work. How would it be to surrender to unknown possibilities? What freedoms and new horizons would be opened by lifting all self-imposed limits? I feel the excitement of the unknown coursing through my veins, do you?

Breaking All the Rules
By Danna Faulds

There are moments when rules
are meant to be broken; when
bursting out of context is the
sole way to see with new eyes.
There are fences built only to
be torn down. The slats look
solid, but no one drove the nail
in tight. There are barricades
around the heart asking to be
breached. Sooner and later we
all run out of excuses for
staying small and safe.

sunrise, Monotype of the Day #405

Day 40 of Year 2

As the summer is coming to an end, I feel the rise of something new. It is brewing deep inside. The life of the studio is cyclic like the seasons: growth, harvest, laying fallow, new beginnings, over and over again. But where the seasons are on a regular schedule, the timeline in the studio is more mysterious. You never know what each day will bring. This is why it's so important to show up and be present to the energy each day. If you are too distracted, you might miss a season of growth. It's a bit like surfing. When that energy comes in you have to catch the wave and ride it as far as you can. Other times, you're still in the studio working even though it might feel more challenging so when the next wave comes, you are in position to catch it. It can feel difficult during a fallow period, especially if you are focused on product over process. But if you remember everything is a cycle, the seasons, the sunrise and sunset, you will know all that is required is patience until the next positive wave comes around. Have faith and carry on.

Sunrise
By Mary Oliver

You can
die for it–
an idea,
or the world. People

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire

let the Light in, Monotype of the Day #403

Day 38 of Year 2

I love tonight's image. It makes me feel warm and supported. I've often thought of myself as the glove for the hand of The Artist. I'm not sure why but this image evokes that same feeling in me, it's a feeling of tremendous trust in the creative process.

come
by Rumi, Trans.Nader Khalili

come
let's fall
in love
again
let's turn
all the dirt
in this world
to shiny gold

come
let's be
a new spring
a love reborn

find our aroma
from the essence
of all who
emit heavenly fragrance

like a fresh tree
bloom and spread
all the blessings
right from inside

messenger, Monotype of the Day #402

Day 37 of Year 2

White Dove
By Danna Faulds

In the shared quiet, an invitation arises like a white dove lifting from a limb and taking flight.
Come and live in truth. Take your place in the flow of grace. Draw aside the veil you thought would always separate your heart from love.
All you ever longed for is before you in this moment if you dare draw in a breath and whisper "Yes."

the gift, Monotype of the Day #401

Day 36 of Year 2

I totally overdid yesterday. I was at a family wedding and sometimes it's worth it. But today, I barely moved, that is until I got into the studio. Somehow the energy I find in there is always enough to squeeze out at least one print no matter my state- exhaustion, fever, truculence ☺️, you name it. It is the generous gift of The Artist to the artist and I am grateful. Now the creative surge has ebbed and I am off to bed. xo

nightscape, Monotype of the Day #400

Day 35 of Year 2

Most of my work depicts an internal landscape even when it looks like a traditional rendering of the external world. I have had an exceptionally busy week. The noise from the grit and grind of life sometimes drowns out the inner voice an artist needs to hear to work. When that happens, an image of emptiness and quiet like this one is salve to a disordered mind. It acts as promise of what can be and also a remembrance of that deep interior spaciousness that allows the creative flow to come through. Images can hold the power to change and reorder energy. Many times it doesn't matter whether an image is "good" or "successful" as an independent work of art. A working artist will make hundreds of images. Some of them will be successful in terms of color, composition, etc., some will be successful because the change their maker even if visually they are not as strong, and some will do both. This is why I try to reserve judgement while working. Later after the work rests I can see more clearly what type of work it is. For tonight, it is enough to see and experience the empty space in this piece and to feel it shifting my internal landscape to a more peaceful place.

When I Met My Muse
By William Stafford

I glanced at her and took my glasses
off—they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip
on whatever they touched. “I am your own
way of looking at things,” she said. “When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation.” And I took her hand.

there you are, Monotype of the Day #399

Day 34 of Year 2

I'm really loving orange tonight. It moves me deeply, I feel it working it's magic, warming my cranky heart. I was a bit out of sorts earlier. Colors do work magic on an artist, you can't help but be changed by the energy and vibration each color holds. My use of color has often been instinctive. That instinct is more about the energy I need to feel flowing through me than what a piece rationally needs, eg blue for sky or the spectrum of skin tones for flesh. Here I needed orange and blue to get my head back on straight. Thankfully they were happy to oblige.
No poem tonight.I was lucky enough to see an amazing live performance this evening. I want it to fill my head a bit longer. There is no space for even the beauty of poetry.

beginning to see the Light, Monotype of the Day #398

Day 33 of Year 2

Titles are the worst. 😜 It's hard to switch your brain from making images to defining them through words. I reserve the right to re-title any monotype in this series in the future!

Experimentation is tonight's theme. The orange and blue are ghost ink from last night's print. I rolled them over with white. The old white ink was extremely opaque and would have yielded very different results. This is too subtle for my tastes, the birds around the orange are just barely noticeable. The second layer, the face, is also more muted than I had hoped. But, part of this project is posting the successes, failures and experiments, so I am. I miss my old ink though. It was a different kind of partner, one that encouraged abandon and experimentation. Unfortunately though, it had some technical issues that became problematic. The newer ink demands carefulness and is more intellectual to work with. I am going to start experimenting with mixing the two. The new ink is better for color and doesn't have the same technical issues. Where there is a will, there is a way and I will find that way! 🙂


You and Art
By William Stafford

Your exact errors make a music
that nobody hears.
Your straying feet find the great dance,
walking alone.
And you live on a world where stumbling
always leads home.

Year after year fits over your face—
when there was youth, your talent
was youth;
later, you find your way by touch
where moss redeems the stone;

and you discover where music begins
before it makes any sound,
far in the mountains where canyons go
still as the always-falling, ever-new flakes of snow.

Source, Monotype of the Day #397

Day 32 of Year 2

If you look closely at this monotype, you will see the ghost image from the leftover ink of last night's print. I'm becoming obsessed with these ink remnants because I can feel their purpose. My first memories of making art are from about 4 years old in preschool. I made faces of strange and monstrous creatures from clay. It was clay that first taught me art materials have inner purpose and desires. Clay is teeming with life, filled with microbes and molds, and is an active participant in making art. If you don't listen to the clay, it won't cooperate, structures will fall apart and cracks will form. Sometimes you will come to clay with an idea only to find it has other, better ideas if you will only listen. The same is true with ink. From the moment it is applied to the plate, it leads the way, gently nudging me to a final image. We are partners in exploration, each made better by the other's creative impulse. Letting go of fixed ideas and surrendering to this partnership is an important part of making art. The leftover ink on my plates calls out. I can feel its desire to express itself. Who am I to deny it its purpose?

Let it go
By Danna Faulds

Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold:
the holding of plans or dreams or expectations–Let it all go. Save your strength to swim with the tide.
The choice to fight what is here before you now will
only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts
to flee from the very energy you long for. Let go.
Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes
through your days whether you received it gently
or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders.
Take this on faith; the mind may never find the
explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward
nonetheless. Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry
you to unknown destinations. Let it all go and find the place of
rest and peace and certain transformation.

like a window, Monotype of the Day #396

Day 31 of Year 2

When I first started the Monotype a Day project, I had strong feelings about going into the studio and let's just say they were not always safe for work. I had a lot of resistance and sometimes I was vocal about it. ☺️ Some days I just plain didn't feel like working but I always made myself anyway. There are still some days I don't feel like going into the studio, but the habit of working is so strong it overrides everything else. I notice I am sick, or cranky, or whatever, I observe it and then I just do it anyway. There isn't even a question so why argue with myself? It's amazing how strong habits are. They can carry you through so much emotional turbulence (worries, anger, resistance, distraction,...) like a strong, secure floor during an earthquake.


I Worried
By Mary Oliver

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

touched, Monotype of the Day #393

Day 28 of Year 2

Exploring and evolving yesterday's image a bit more. I did a number of monotypes on this theme today. Something about it fascinates me. There is a particular energy running through. I want the top and bottom hands to meet and communicate but it hasn't happened yet. The desired handshake may or may not be in the cards, tomorrow will tell.
Happily, I have been feeling well enough to start walking again for the first time since spring. Making art is a full body activity. As soon as I started walking, things started to move on some larger pieces I am working on for my solo show at Clerestory Fine Art in January. So much muscle memory, intelligence, and emotions are stored in the body. It has so much to communicate beyond what our minds know. If you leave the body out of it, you are robbing yourself of rich layers of meaning. I am grateful to be moving again and deepening the communication between my mind, body, and artwork.

Closing Prayer, Thursday
By Thomas Merton from his Book of Hours

And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.

the hand, Monotype of the Day #392

Day 27 of Year 2

This one is subtle, look for the head at the bottom. It’s hard to get the detail in the photo. ...that passeth all understanding
By Denise Levertov

An awe so quiet
I don’t know when it began.

A gratitude
had begun
to sing in me.

Was there
some moment
dividing
song from no song?

When does dewfall begin?

When does night
fold its arms over our hearts
to cherish them?

When is daybreak?