as a fish, Monotype of the Day #806

806-fishing.jpg

Day 74 of year 3

This print contains many days of ghosts layered over each other.

The Oldest Thirst There Is
By Rumi, Translation Coleman Barks

Give us gladness that connects
with the Friend, a taste of the quick,
you that make a cypress strong
and jasmine jasmine.

Give us the inner listening
that is a way in itself
and the oldest thirst there is.

Don’t measure it out with a cup.
I am a fish. You are the moon.
You cannot touch me, but your light
can fill the ocean where I live.

From The Essential Rumi https://amzn.to/3kRKPaa

For the next 24 hours buy this monotype for 10% off here: https://www.sybilarchibaldart.com/daily-monotype-sale

After that, you can purchase it here: https://www.sybilarchibaldart.com/monotypes-for-sale

i can hear you, Monotype of the day #805

805-i hear you.jpg

Day 73 of year 3

I've updated my website. It's taken a lot of time, time away from the studio, but necessary time to give. Being an artist doesn't just mean working in the studio in blissful isolation. It's paperwork, websites, social media, taxes, bookkeeping, networking, reaching out to galleries, sales, and more. But I for one, gladly give this time because I'd rather be doing this than almost anything else. My website is updated with new work including the entire monotype of the day project, a video section, and the ability to purchase work. I'm excited announce that from now on, for the first 24 hours after posting, the monotype of the day will be on sale for 10% off. www.sybilarchibaldart.com/daily-monotype-sale.

Look for the light in this world and you will find it. xo

choose, Monotype of the Day #802

Day 70 of year 3

One of my favorite websites is www.poetry-chaikhana.com/. It contains a wealth of sacred poetry from around the world. Every time I visit, it seems I find something new. Tonight I discovered the poem below. Art feeds art and creativity is generously contagious and enriching. It's so important to the creative process to be exposed to different forms of art whether poetry, music, dance, etc. Cross pollination.

Elbows By John Fox

The sacred quality
of arms, particularly
elbows that make
each of us working class,
put us here for a purpose.
Look at elbows
and what they say:
elbow your way
into the passive crowd
to do what is needed,
give it your elbow grease --
this is enough.
Elbows, no one can
possess them because
they can disappear and
you move them
into action by choice.
And that choice
is prayer in action.
The deepest current of love
is not found in the heart.
That is the certain spring,
the natural ease, the flow
from the mountaintop.
The greatest current of love
rushes forward in the choice
to make a cradle of the body.

Found on https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/F/FoxJohn/Elbows/index.html I could not find the book source for this.

partners, Monotype of the Day #800

800-partners.jpg

Day 68 of year 3

Day 800, that's a nice number! I spent the day making color prints. Most of them will end up as under layers for future black ink prints but I liked this one. There is a special kind of freedom in making work you know will never be seen. It's a good way to oil the cogs so to speak. It loosens you up and relieves you of internal judgements. I haven't done this in a long while and it felt really good. (Poem below the title)

Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End?
By Mary Oliver

There are things you can’t reach. But
you can reach out to them, and all day long.

The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.

And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

The snake slides away; the fish jumps, like a little lily,
out of the water and back in; the goldfinches sing
from the unreachable top of the tree.

I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.

Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around
as though with your arms open.

And thinking: maybe something will come, some
shining coil of wind,
or a few leaves from any old tree–
they are all in this too.

And now I will tell you the truth.
Everything in the world
comes.

At least, closer.

And, cordially.

Like the nibbling, tinsel-eyed fish; the unlooping snake.
Like goldfinches, little dolls of goldfluttering around the corner of the sky

of God, the blue air.

From Why I Wake Early https://amzn.to/3mAFLII

For more information on purchasing this monotype click here or see “Buy Art” in the menu above.

fire, Monotype of the Day #798

fire, monotype, 12 x 14” Sybil Archibald

fire, monotype, 12 x 14”
Sybil Archibald

Day 66 of year 3

My printing plate is just about out of gas. I've been using it every day for a couple of years. The paper is sticking to it and the ink is rebelling. I can't get a solid field of black. It's an interesting texture but I think I'll be replacing this plate soon. To be an artist often means being at the mercy of the physical world. The push and pull of materials is an active force during creation. Materials have purpose and desire, they have moods. Sometimes you get along with them and sometimes you fight. Tonight I fought a bit but in the end I let the ink and plate have their way. This evening, one of my favorite all time poems below. I've posted several time before and used as inspiration for my solo show last winter. I never get tired of reading it and the fire in this print is a good excuse!

This work is paired with "A Fish Cannot Drown in Water" by Mechthild de Magdeberg translated by Jane Hirshfield from The Enlightened Heart https://amzn.to/3hGQDRQ

rising, Monotype of the Day #797

Day 65 of year 3

Lately I've been making a real effort to get out into nature on a regular basis. It's something I haven't done consistently since I was a child and it's changing me. Each trip feels like dust falling from my eyes. My vision is clearer and I definitely feel more grounded. Sometimes when you feel a little blocked up like I have this last week, the best thing to do is get out of your head and clear the mind. One of the things that has been frustrating me is the small size of my printing plate. My experiments at going larger have all been failures. Today it dawned on me that I need to make my own plates out of gelatin. I'll start with small-sized tests but I'm hoping to be able to get really large with it. We shall see, I've ordered the supplies. It's at times like these that I really do miss my studio assistant because some things are challenging because of my physical limitations. I've learned to have patience though. I do what I can and try to find creative workarounds for the rest. If I absolutely can't figure out how to do something, I remind myself that all things have their proper time. I trust that time will come and, while I am waiting, I turn my process to something else. One foot in front of the other and eventually all will be done.

Click here to purchase this Monotype or use “Buy Art” in the menu above.

the fountain, Monotype of the Day #794

794-the fountain.jpg

Day 62 of year 3

This is the ghost print from last night's plate with another layer on top. I've used tonight's poem by Rilke before but from a different translator who gives it a slightly different flavor. I so wish I could read it in the original German!

Sonnets to Orpheus II, XII By Rilke, Trans. Barrows and Macey

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/33tnNiq

For more information on purchasing this monotype click here or see “Buy Art” in the menu above.

an earful, Monotype of the Day #793

Day 61 of year 3

This is a black ink print over an older color print. It's challenging to get the right color on darker prints when editing photo but this is pretty close. I like the mystery of it. It very much captures how I'm feeling right now. There are certain poems that call you back over and over. Tonight's poem by Lynn Ungar is one. If you haven't read her work, a link to her book is at the bottom and she publishes new poems on Facebook regularly.

Salvation
By Lynn Ungar

By what are you saved? And how?
Saved like a bit of string,
tucked away in a drawer?
Saved like a child rushed from
a burning building, already
singed and coughing smoke?
Or are you salvaged
like a car part — the one good door
when the rest is wrecked?

Do you believe me when I say
you are neither salvaged nor saved,
but salved, anointed by gentle hands
where you are most tender?
Haven’t you seen
the way snow curls down
like a fresh sheet, how it
covers everything,
makes everything
beautiful, without exception?

From Bread and Other Miracles https://amzn.to/3bUHvYA

For more information on purchasing this monotype click here or see “Buy Art” in the menu above.