We did monoprints again in our Saturday morning art class. It’s a drawing class but I want us to draw in a lot of different ways so we get to know what way speaks to us. We’ve done a lot in charcoal so making monoprints is an opportunity to create an image that is more graphic and abstract.

This time we carved images into rubber. It cuts like butter so you can get a nice smooth line if you want to. We ended up with a bunch of rubber stamps and went from there, partly because I forgot to bring the retarder and when we rolled out ink on plexiglass plates it dred too quickly to draw into it. Still, some fabulous work was done by our intrepid group who are not daunted by less than perfect circumstances, as true artists are not.

Some of us struggle with our imagery and what we want to do. I am struggling myself at the moment. My own true preference is to draw more in the style of cartoons, to create an alternate universe of dancing crocodiles and things like that. But it’s fun to explore and discover other aspects of ourselves. Developing a visual language takes time and even though discourageent sometimes raises its naughty head we just have to carry on. We have to keep doing things over and over in art. And over and over we have to let go of expectation and flow with what emerges. There’s always something great in it.
I occasionally think I ought to be ‘teaching’ more, telling them how to do things. But I resist doing that as much as possible. We’ve all jumped into the deep end of the pool. Sometimes but we flail around a bit, but that’s okay. It’s a faster way to learn and far less inhibiting than having someone stand over you and tell you you’ve got it all wrong—although some people do prefer that way. In our class, we look for what we like in things and try to build on that. And I’ve seen every artist grow, which is a credit to their brave experimentation.

More important than the art is the deep pleasure of sitting with a group of super people all immersed, deeply immersed, in the process of making something fabulous. Sharing a few laughs, dropping a word or two here and there but mostly just working, working. We have the music on and outside the sun shines. Afterwards we lay our work out and look to see the wonders within it.

And next Saturday I will actually bring the retarder and a new kind of paper.