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

rooted, Monotype of the Day #633

Day 263 of Year 2 (Actually Day 268)

Well our new puppy has absorbed every second of time- free or otherwise. Also today my son, who has been in precautionary quarantine in my basement for two weeks, emerged. It was a VERY busy day. So strange that such a crazy and intense day brings such a centered image. This large moon, barren treescape, and color have been coming up over and over. I've been experimenting with different techniques each night. Last night's process was by far the most successful, at least for me, but tonight's is the calmest. Images work on different levels. There is the external level for viewers of my work and the internal level which is a private message to me, The Artist speaking tenderly to the artist. Not every image speaks deeply to me, but this one is particularly charged. The peaceful color and rooted person are directing me, stay calm, find your center. Though the trees are barren, to me they appear simply to be waiting for signs of spring. Patience will bear fruit.

the visitor, Monotype of the Day #631

Day 261 of Year 2 (Actually Day 266)

Another very quick sketch this evening. This large moon is haunting my brain. My studio is a bit out of control at the moment. It's been several weeks without my studio assistant and I am getting down to the nitty gritty. Soon paper must be torn, mat chips cut, trash emptied and I have been spoiled rotten with help. Some things I can't so on my own so it will be interesting to see what effect this has on my work. Attachment. We get attached to things being a certain way. I am trying to let my expectations go and see what comes.

moonlit song, Monotype of the Day #630

Day 260 of Year 2 (Actually Day 265)

I hope you are all safe and well. I'd love if you would comment on this post and let me know how you are doing. Trying to loosen things up a bit tonight and work quickly. It's been a while since I did this and it's so important to do now and then. It gives the body and muscle memory a chance to reintegrate with the mind. Without these exercises, it's easy to get too careful and start thinking rather than listening. There is nothing more important to my process than listening. I've included a picture of the plate with ink just for interest. xoxo

In Silence
By Thomas Merton

Be still.
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
to speak your

name.
Listen to the living walls.

Who are you?
Who
are you? Whose
silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
are you (as these stones
are quiet). Do not
think of what you are
still less of
what you may one day be.

Rather
be what you are (but who?) be the unthinkable one
you do not know.

O be still, while
you are still alive,
and all things live around you

speaking (I do not hear)
to your own being,
speaking by the unknown
that is in you and in themselves. “I will try, like them
to be my own silence:
and this is difficult. The whole
world is secretly on fire. The stones
burn, even the stones they burn me.
How can a man be still or
listen to all things burning?
How can he dare to sit with them
when all their silence is on fire?” From The Strange Islands https://amzn.to/2UGe99k
Found on Poetry Chaikhana https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2013/09/27/thomas-merton-in-silence-2/
Poetry Chaikhana is an amazing amazing website for sacred poetry, check it out!

cocooning, Monotype of the Day #628

Day 258 of Year 2 (Actually Day 263)

It's helpful for me to think of this time as cocooning rather than quarantining. This way I emphasize the potential for growth and transformation rather than fear and anxiety. We have to think very carefully about where we put mental energy. What supports us in continuing to live life as fully as possible during this strange time? The outside world is fixed. We must stay put, but the inner world is wide open. What will we make of it? My love to all those who are sick or suffering.

messaging, Monotype of the Day #627

Day 257 of Year 2 (Actually Day 262)

I thought I'd show a few pictures for scale and process. Tomorrow I'll take a picture with ink on the plate before printing. Right now, the urge to simplify is strong so I find myself using just one color. I'm also back to meditating twice a day and it's like spring cleaning my brain! :) My show in February already seems like a millions years ago but really I'm just getting my grove back. With everything going on in the world, I'm grateful for any grove at all. I'm in the studio each day because I love it, but also because I need the healing and generative energy of the creative act. The centering moment of clarity that comes with making art balances and me. And studio teaches that though it's not easy, it's okay not to know what's coming. We are here now and this present moment is sacred and has the power to transform. My love and prayers to all those sick or suffering.