Enjoy: Experimenting

 

Entering this new year, I felt a little lost. How was I feeling now? Where did I want to go? What did I want to do. These are questions I haven’t looked into in the last few years because all I could focus on in those years was survival.  Maybe you feel the same. 

Taking an online workshop this week, I was able to see it all more clearly. Tara Mohr presented a free workshop called “Restore and Reimagine”. As I listened to the recording, I felt calmer and more centered. Hearing other women talk about how they were feeling in this new year, I felt less alone. 

Restore. Reclaim. 

I love words and I respect their power. Words can challenge and comfort, give insight and inspiration. When I pick my word of the year, I look for one that helps me move forward. I also look for phrases and quotes. I mix and match all this with sketches, small watercolors and pictures and make a collage on my studio bulletin board. And I put some up on my refrigerator. 

Phrases like: ‘take life back’ and ‘fresh start’ popped up. I wasn’t sure what they meant for me or my art, but I put them up anyway. The online workshop helped me see these phrases more clearly. What I really wanted was not to go back to my old life back but to restore and reclaim my life now. 

How do I do that? Reimagine. 

I had so many things fall apart around me. Closures. Shows. Work routines. Home disasters. I worked hard in and around it all. I knew what I had loved to do and make. But now it’s time to take stock. It’s time to ask questions and open up to new ideas. What do I want to create? Where do I want to be? What brings me enjoyment? 

One thing I enjoy is color. When I was 16 years old, I started doing watercolors and now I do clay. I wondered: what would happen if I did both? Is it possible? And how would it work? I let go of the questions and decided to let myself reimagine. 

Rolling clay, smooth and soft

Mixing watery sunset colors

Washing a sky 

Tilting and turning and dripping

Trees appear  

Enjoying the flow

What have you enjoyed this week?

Since I shared my word of the year for 2023: Enjoy, some new things have happened. They’re really just ordinary things. Like right now, there’s blue sky peeking around the gray rain clouds. A crow just flew past my window. And I hear my neighborhood crows chatting away in the trees behind my house. 

Like I said, it’s all just everyday stuff. Why does it feel new? Because I’m looking at it all through a different window not in my home but in my mind. I’m looking at everyday things through a window framed around my word of the year: enjoy. 

Bubble wrap and packing tape. Enjoy?

I sold one of my favorite pieces last week and shipped it out to its new owner. I enjoyed that my Leaf Platter sold! I love gathering the leaves in the fall and making plates and platters. Each one is so wonderfully unique in shape, size with its own individual set of veins, folds and edges. I enjoy bringing out each leaf’s qualities in clay, paint and glaze. 

But I’m not a professional packer, so shipping scares me. Especially with all the delicate edges, preparing and wrapping the leaf platter felt overwhelming. So I took it one step at a time. 

First: find the right box. It took two trips to different FedEx stores to get two different sized boxes. I used the bigger box than in the picture: 20x20x12. Each leaf point was bubble wrapped. The whole plater was bubble wrapped. The the box was stuffed with paper and bubble wrap to cushion the platter. Topping it with more bubble wrap, paper and bubble wrap. Seal. Tape. Weigh. And enjoy delivering it to the UPS store. 

Enjoying black, white and color. 

In the studio this week, I painted. I started using a wash technique years ago and I still love how it brings the textures I put into each piece. I did a black wash on my new Lily vases. Many of my new sculpture pieces got washed with black too. 

Then I decided to try something different. A few new leaves, vases and bowls got a bright red wash. Some new pieces got washed with turquoise. 

Will I like the new colors? I don’t know. 

What I do know: I enjoyed trying something new. Even with bubble wrap. 

I enjoyed knowing the Leaf Platter arrived safely and the customer loves it!

What have you enjoyed this week?

2023 Word of the Year: Enjoy

 

I’ve been doing a word of the year since 2010. I didn’t realize it’s been 13 years! And maybe that’s why it’s taken me a while to come up with this year’s word. With over a dozen good words already in the past, it was a bit of a struggle to come up with another one. 

I saw the real question going through my head was, why? Why do I feel the need to have a new word for the new year? Maybe after 13 years, I’ve used all the good ones? Maybe I don’t need one anymore? Then why did I have such a long list?

13 wise words in 13 years. 

Here’s a list of the past Words of the Year:

Freedom

Trust

Strength

Live

Flow, Faith

Curiosity

Hope

Understanding

Believe

Act

Heal

Shine

I can clearly see how these words helped me through my life. Some gave me a light to follow through dark times. Some supported me. Some encouraged me. Some asked me to try new ideas or feelings. Others sparked new creative ideas. 

The last 4 words from 2019 to 2022 inspired me to create word bowls. I used the word of the year in the bowl, then surrounded it with ways to use it in daily life. Each bowl could be a little guide to follow with your cereal in the morning. Or support you at your desk at work or your coffee table at home. 

Which word now?

Making some new bowls in December, a new word appeared: wish. I thought, great! Here’s my word of the year. But as the month went on I wasn’t sure. 

While I let it sit in the background, some phrases popped up: Fresh Start and Take My Life Back. After Covid, quarantine and our home’s flood these phrases seemed like good guides for the new year.

But I wanted a word. So like I always do, I made a list. The long list boiled down to five good words: wish, breathe, create, joy and enjoy. I was leaning toward wish, since I’d already started two new bowls. Then one morning I woke from a dream where a woman reached out and tapped me on the arm and said, “Enjoy it a little.”

Wise words. 

Yes, some days are stressful and scary. 

But quickly days turn into months and years. 

Maybe just for today, I can enjoy it a little.