Tuesday, April 9, 2013

What's In A Word?

road through the mountains 20"x20"  oil, earth pigments, cold wax on panel


Last week Robyn at Art Propelled wrote about her word for the year: "Stillness".  I was inspired by her post.  Janice Mason Steeves painted "Silence" for a period. I'm not sure if it was a whole year but she focused on that one word in her work for an extended time.  There is something in me that is drawn to this idea, the contemplation of one word. Perhaps it is the simplicity; the fact that my pea brain might be able to hold a single, solitary unattached word, a free floating group of letters revolving around a thought, a feeling, an essence.  The other thing that draws me, moth like to this idea, is the opportunity to dive deeply into a word, to watch it grow, expand and fill my world.  I could inhabit the word, no maybe if I was lucky I could become the word.  Say if the word was poodle, people might start looking at me and remarking, " don't you think she's starting to look a bit like a poodle, no, no maybe it's just the new haircut?"

Stillness, silence these are lovely words. I see the potential for exploration and growth with these words as companions.  I remember having a conversation years ago with a doctor, who had said some things I didn't care for. I reminded him that words are powerful and that they have the potential to either hurt or heal.  We use them so off handedly in our everyday world.  I can't count the times I have been wounded unintentionally by a dull thud of a word.  And I can only imagine the number of dangerously sharp words I have flung in haste and unawareness at others.  Perhaps we could heal ourselves with a single word? Or the other way around?

May Peace Increase On Earth 20"x 24" mixed media on canvas


So Robyn got me thinking about choosing a word for the year (even though we are well into the year). I liked her idea of having a friend to bounce your word back and forth with over the year; someone to exchange word musings with.  But then there's the important thing; the word.  What word would I choose?  I am a bit of a curmudgeon with a slight rebel streak, so I wouldn't want anything too "nice" or "sweet", and I wouldn't want anything sentimental or over wrought. And nothing too assertive or aggressive.  I don't want a word like "do" or "change" or "athlete" as suggested on one website I looked at.

I think first, my word needs to be personally meaningful.  It needs to be something like a koan, something that intersects or expresses something I want to be or have more of in my life (as in Janice an Robyn's words).  It needs to have these qualities to keep me engaged I think.  I don't want to leave it languishing in a book somewhere after a few days, crying sad little print tears that run like mascara because I have given up on it so soon.

With Our Thoughts 16"x16" mixed media on canvas


I am thinking about "ease" or "trust" as potential words.  Ease sounds a bit lazy and maybe a little "new agey" and "trust", well it sounds a little like motherhood and apple pie.  (This is me rolling the little word marbles around.) Lazy or apple pie?  hmmm.  These words call to me because I'm a "struggler".  I am inclined to see things as difficult or make things difficult, more difficult that they need to be.  And in the seeing of things as hard, well you know how that goes....  But I am working on letting that part of me dissolve like sponge toffee left out in the rain.  So I thought, what if I had a word I could hold like a little talisman, a little magical, glowing bit of the alphabet.  A word that might relax that inclination to wrestle, to stop me from writhing around like someone tangled up in a bedsheet, even when there is no bedsheet.  Now that would be a good word.

And how about you?  Do you have a word? For the year?  For the day? Do words call to you, sing like sirens, take you on little journeys?  A good word is a powerful thing. And a good companion.

12 comments:

  1. I have found that the words that just come to me from deep within have a lot more impact and significance than ones I try to think up in my mind. For instance, in January I *thought* my word to contemplate was "relationship." Instead it has been the words that have come to me in meditation - like "focus and balance" a couple of months ago, or ones that come in waking moments like, "accept life", that came just this week - that are the ones that have held the most meaning; are words that I needed to hear, the ones that have been "medicine.". As I discovered, they aren't always the words that we *think* they should be...

    I seem to remember a phrase of words that you got I think earlier this year, or maybe the end of last year, through your art that seemed really powerful. I think it was something like "road map of the heart." It seemed so spontaneous and alive coming through your art work. Which makes me think that the words actually choose us and not the other way around... Maybe asking for a word in meditation and just see what arises... Or maybe just be aware of words that arise when you're lost in your art... Happy word hunting :)

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    1. Yes, I like that, "the word chooses you". So many wonderful thoughts here. Perhaps that is why I am taking my time finding a word that fits. It seems it needs to resonate, somehow. I have tried on a few potential words that don't seem to fit. Wish me luck in " getting chosen".

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  2. What a great post. Last year I and two artist friends decided to organise and work towards a travelling exhibition called 'Pilgrimage' . We all had very different disciplines; painting,textiles and metal sculpture. We produced, over the course of 9 months some wonderful work on what the word pilgrimage meant to each of us. Although the start points were different we ended up with work that easy intimately linked.....

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    1. that sounds like a wonderful and rich exploration of a word! Your word reminds me that in early May I will go to a workshop with David Whyte where the topic is Pilgrimage. You might be interested (or perhaps you know he released a book of poetry last year by the same title.

      It would be fun to experience, as you did, the different explorations of the same word.

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  3. Indeed the important thing is the word you choose. If it doesn't sing you will soon forget it. I love the thought of your chosen word being like a talisman. A word to meditate on... a word to calm .... a word to inspire one to create art.
    Lovely post, Carole (thanks too for mentioning mine :-) and I'm enjoying the comments.

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  4. Thanks, Robyn, you were indeed the inspiration for the post! Yes, great comments! I love that sometimes the comments generate the most interesting conversations.

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  5. This reminds me of the Lankavatara Sutra and my impression that it advises not to become caught up with words. So maybe a good word would be emptiness or one of it's variations. But I'm not a writer, or a scholar, or even a good reader. For me words are meaningless because each one holds myriad meanings for each of us. Meanings that shimmer and change constantly. Meanings that can never be pinned down. I guess that's the point of the exercise?

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  6. Everyone has such interesting points to offer! And perhaps if one contemplated a word for a year, we would get to see this shimmering, dancing, disappearing, re-appearing manifestion of our word; to really understand the nature of impermanence in a blood and bones sort of way!

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  7. I thought you were going to choose 'struggler'for a minute, which could be a cool word - I admire you for choosing this challenge - I would forget within a few days that I had chosen a word to focus on for a whole year and then I would remember a month later and then forget again - now if I was to choose say a certain food to focus on for a year like say, chocolate cake and have to find the best chocolate cake on the planet, I wouldn't forget that!! good luck choosing your word xo

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    1. I'm sure I will forget and remember and so on and so on! Your remark about chocolate reminds me of the title of a book I read with my daughter when she was little called "The Search For Delicious". Now that could be a good thing!

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  8. I am focusing on gratitude. Since I have to have awareness to have gratitude, I am working with both words. I would forget too, so I have friend whom I check in with, and she with me. That makes it work!
    I enjoyed the video on compassion, maybe that will be my word next year, if I can remember!
    Focus on a word is much more engaging then a resolution of some sort of habit.

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  9. Yes gratitude and awareness, a great combo! Are you referring to the Kristen Neff video, yes, self compassion is so healing and radiates outward to others, as she points out.

    I agree the word, much less imposing, more creative than resolutions. Happy word mining!

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