The word

For the past five years I have been choosing a word for each new year, rather than making resolutions. Last year's word was "discover" and I did pretty well at keeping it in mind and made some good discoveries in 2013. I started changing some things about my artwork and trying something new and there were a lot of discoveries along that path. Most of my words of the year have been high-minded words of change and betterment and such a word simply didn't present itself when I started contemplating a new word for the coming year. Not that I am no longer in need or change or bettering, but perhaps I am just too tired out by all the discovering I have been doing this past year to summon enough energy for a word that challenges me very much. Some days I feel like maintaining is challenge enough. But no, I am not choosing "maintain" as my inspiration! Can't set the bar that low.

So I asked myself what good things did I discover this past year? I discovered recycled fabric and over-dying and I discovered a more spontaneous, but still planned, way of working. I discovered (re-discovered, actually) the joy of small hand-worked projects and found objects and texture. I discovered, on a trip to Ecuador, the joy of rediscovering old memories and even discovered the equator anew! I discovered yellow. Well, I didn't discover it really, but gained a new appreciation for that most inspiring of all colors. I made two quilted pieces with yellow skies and discovered that if the sky is not really yellow maybe it ought to be. And so, that is my word for 2014. Yellow.

And I added it to the studio wall along with the past years' words, so I will remember.

And I will use yellow to add hope and light and warmth to the world whenever I can. I think yellow is too often dismissed as a lightweight in the color spectrum, but I think it sheds its beautiful light on every other color in a composition. Golden, warm yellow—it's more than a color. It's an attitude and the aura I plan to surround myself with this year.