at sea, Day 826 Print

For 900 days I was compelled to make a monotype each day without fail. Working from my studio, in hotels, and even in the hospital, images poured through me and demanded their say. I listened and in the process was transformed. These prints depict my struggles with the rare disease scleroderma which caused my hand to curl into balls and my body to wither as I wasted away, unable to eat. I clawed my way back to the world, print by print, through the power of creativity, Art creating Life. Video Profile: https://religionunplugged.com/news/inspired-by-medieval-spirituality-and-suffering-an-artist-exhaults-transformation SYBIL'S STORY Sybil Archibald’s earliest memories are of delving deeply into the earth for clay on her family’s 20 acre orange farm in Ojai, California. She remembers days covered from head to toe in thick, chunky mud, and the cold hosing off that followed. Carrying her love of clay and mess into the classroom while in kindergarten, she began sculpting wild and whimsical heads of people and monsters and has never looked back. Between Archibald and the clay there was a bond. She intuitively understood that clay was teaming with life, filled with microbes and decomposing plant matter. She experienced clay as an active participant in the creative process. From this discovery she understood the profound connection between the physical world and the inner creative world. “I felt a spiritual connection with the clay, as I shaped and transformed it, I was transforming myself inside,” Archibald says. “This was when I began to understand that art is a spiritual path and that we are transformed by diving deeply into the creative process.” She now works in many mediums including printmaking, sculpting, painting, and installation and each medium becomes a vehicle for spiritual exploration. Inspired by her early experiences with clay, Archibald went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in medieval spirituality from New York University and train extensively in traditional sacred arts including Russian Icon painting at the School of Sacred Arts in Manhattan. Her artistic practice was deepened by discovering sacred art traditions are built on the same foundational knowledge, which she had discovered in her own practice, that creation is a spiritual act. Archibald’s artwork is also a record of the deep inner changes caused by confronting long-term illness.