“Two Are Better Than One”

I have come to the point in my sumi-e painting when major portions of the execution are predictable. Strokes and brush loading may be demanding but they are still known and accessible to me. They have become ritual. That said, occasionally, perhaps because of urgency or fatigue, I forget and mindlessly stretch beyond habit and choose an undirected path.. In “Two Are Better Than One” that’s what happened— the flow of the monoprint was laid out, but then I decided to add “splashed/broken ink” (po-mo) on the lower left and something mysterious took over. Lots of times this lack of calculation is immediately and obviously a mistake, a space needing mending, but occasionally there is a reward and a door opens to new insights about ink. Have a look and see if you agree.