Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Word of the Year for 2015

I've never done a "Word of the Year", but have seen it on several blogs (see a couple here - Blue Twig Studio's blog and Catbird Quilt Studio's blog). People pick a "Word of the Year" for various reasons - a word to focus on rather than a New Year's resolution or to help make themselves accountable for accomplishing various goals throughout the year to name a couple reasons given.

Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio's thoughts about a Word of the Year hit me the most. Since she wasn't following through on New Year's resolutions, she has chosen a Word of the Year for the past several years and makes it a part of her life - part of her vocabulary - everyday. She says:

     "This is key for me – to see how the word presented itself and how it just became a part of my 
        everyday life. And I also look at how it may have presented in unexpected areas of my life or 
        in ways that I hadn’t planned on. That is the fun part. Because once you choose your word of 
        the year – it will show up again and again and again."

It has taken me a couple of weeks to decide on a word. Several kept going through my head. The one that kept coming up time and again was 
COLOR
Color fits in with creating art. I can explore all the various ranges of color in my own artwork - from the rainbow to all the combinations on a color wheel - monotone, complementary, split-complementary, triad, analogous. Nature uses a multitude of colors in many unexpected and beautiful ways. Much can be learned from studying other artists. Also, neutrals add another avenue to explore colors.  

Even more exciting to me than color values and intensities is exploring the many moods and temperatures color provokes or implies. Most colors represent opposites. For example blue conjures up sadness, depression, as well as calmness, loyalty, and truth.  It makes one think of the ocean and the sky - vastness and the cold. Red is anger, but also excited and loving. It brings to mind hearts, passion, fire and heat.  Yellow can be cowardice, afraid and impatient. But on the other hand, yellow means intellect, optimism, and cheerful. One thinks of the sun, sunflowers, yellow ribbons of hope and warmth, 

Now that I've decided to focus on a word of the year, I'm excited about it and how it will appear in various aspects of my life in the coming year. 


Keep creating!
Lynnita



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