Hamsa was my last print of the day at Mitch Lyons Open Studio yesterday. I am grateful I live only an hour and a half away from the guy who discovered, explored, and elaborated clay monoprinting. It was like a sangha of clay monoprinters, just six of us hanging out with Mitch from 12 - 5 p.m.
As Rabbi Leib once said, "I did not go to the master (maggid) in order to hear Torah from him, but to see how he unlaces his felt shoes and laces them up again." Mitch makes a point of saying he doesn't teach at Open Studio. He just does his own work and laces and unlaces his felt shoes...
Ice Skater was my first print of the day:
It's 'ghost', or the second print from the same 'inking', (though in this case using clay slip to which pigment has been added,) is called T.V.:
The following prints were done at home in the last weeks, and the sun wasn't quite right to photograph them until today:
Floating:
Seascape:
These two are an example of how much fun it is to work with two slabs at the same time, as well as hand finishing with water color.
Here is a 'ghost' from one of them, called Oracion:
I've had the South American talisman for many years. Living in San Diego close to the border for so long the influence was pervasive. Who knew it would end up on a clay monoprint?
The one below is also a mixed-media clay monoprint called Bridge Over Troubled Water. A clay modeling tool has been added, as the 'bridge' from troubled waters to a place of calm. The shape works well with the design, and at the same time is conceptually a statement about the healing power of creativity and the arts.
"When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd," the line from the Shaker song 'Tis the Gift to be Simple, is the inspiration for titling the print above Simplicity.
The print below is called Unexpected Doorway:
Clay monoprinting continues to be an unexpected doorway for me on many levels. I will continue to enter its portal and explore what's on the other side as long as I am physically able.
