Tag Archives: words

Cycle

The word I drew from my word jar yesterday was Cycle. I started by pulling a bunch of green fabric scraps. The idea of “cycle” just made me think of green for a bunch of reasons. For one, when I am out cycling these days there is SO much pretty green trees and plants. My allergies don’t care for it much but I love  looking at all the beautiful green. As much as it rains here, and I get tired of all the rain, it still makes our area so lush and beautiful. Another reason that green came to mind is the idea of cycles meaning growth and the seasons. Right now we are in the growing, green season. My garden is filled with green.

Then I cut all the green into circles. Circles make me think of my tire wheels… that are part of my bicycle. Also the idea of a cycle is that it comes back around from start to finish, so a circle is the perfect symbol for it.

Cycle B4 Beads

After I laid out the circles I decided they should become pea pods. The peas are one of the main crops I can harvest right now so there are lots of them around. But I was also thinking about the protective shell around the peas. I am in a fun, but sometimes difficult cycle of my year right now. As a teacher I have the summer to reflect, relax and rejuvenate. But without any structure I tend to get lost and antisocial and even depressed. This year I am  working on creating a protective shell around myself and my goals to provide some structure.

Cycle after beads

Using beads, ribbon and trim I grouped the circles into some pea pods. I added some buttons too as little peas within some bigger ones. I also like how the white trim with the green sequins ended up looking like a bike chain.

I meant for this to be a quick one day per word type challenge. More of a doodle art starter type thing. But I really enjoy hand sewing/beading work, which takes a lot longer. I am thinking actually that this might meld into my Beaded journal Project piece, since I am behind on those and really this is pretty much the same idea as the BJP.

Sometimes it is hard for me to decide when a piece is done, when to stop adding to it.  But I feel good about this one. Although I still have to figure out how I want to ‘finish’ it for display purposes. That part seems to hold up a lot of my pieces, so they end up just sitting around in piles in these not ready to display states.

What’s in a Word?

As I reflect over the past year and make my goals for the next year, I have discovered a few people summing up their year in a single word. This seems like such a great way to focus on my goals, to have one over-arching word of significance to guide my actions. I always include text into my artwork already, but to have a given word to almost become a signature for the year sounds so freeing and exciting.

“A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything.”

Many of my online artist friends have been declaring their words. Dale Anne selected Explore for her word, so I decided to explore  more about choosing a word for myself. Christine Kane describes the process in “Resolution Revolution“. In fact, I remember reading this post last year, and I looked into some words, but for whatever reason I didn’t pick a word. (Although I did set some art goals.) Now she has a month of posts about people that selected a word and had a year of success focused on that word. It is exciting to read about people that picked their words from deep emotional places like transition, or ones that pick their word with humor, like chicken. Courageseems to be a popular word, and in this world, it seems we all need a little courage just to get through the day. Another blogger, Ali, not only has a list of word suggestions, she also has a little contest/giveaway for those setting words as a focus.

So far I am looking at the following words:

  • Action: the process or state of acting or of being active
  • Immersion: concentrating on one course of instruction, subject, or project to the exclusion of all others for several days or weeks; intensive, state of being deeply engaged or involved; absorption
  • Journey: a traveling from one place to another, passage or progress from one stage to another
  • Vibrancy: pulsating with life, vigor, or activity; exciting; stimulating; lively

The words on the longer list included challenge, energy, achieve, active, accomplish, strive, release, discipline, but most of them felt to final or had a negative feeling to me. I know that this year will not be the end of my projects and goals, nor are they the beginning. It is important that my word encompasses my fitness goals as well as my art, relationship and professional goals.

 

I am leaning towards Vibrancy… but I am going to let it sit today and see how it looks in the morning. Then I will print out the one I will focus on and put it in my studio and my home gym so I won’t forget!

 

what word do you think I should pick?

Free scrabble words for your collage

words, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

Playing with some scrabble tiles and my scanner. Please feel free to download and use this word sheet in your collage! and be sure to share your art with me when you do!