New Beginnings

This was the theme I chose for my January 2012 embroidery journal project. Little did I know that that theme would stretch through the whole year. Actually, I purposefully didn't choose a theme. I didn't want to limit myself. I wanted the freedom to make a project for each month as it came.

Each of these projects have a meaning, something I was trying to convey, to remember. All of these I have done for myself. Most didn't even get any particular notice by the public, but that was never the goal. But each one is a new beginning of sorts. For me. I will go ahead and list them.

January - this project was created with the idea of new beginnings. I took a pencil and drew. What I came up with was a seed. The perfect new beginning.

Februrary - I did this little bird with crewel yarns. This has been a new thing this year. I have found threads that I love. When I pick them up and sort them out, they always make me feel like making something. Every time.

March - I rediscovered music. I got a clarinet and began playing it after years. It doesn't matter how good I ever become, what's important is the challenge it gives me. Another way to express myself, another front to grow on.

April - Spring is my favorite time of year. It came a little late this year, so it officially began in April.  The whole world explodes in joy.

May - I captured the tadpoles in stitches. As the squiggle about searching for food, growing, developing. New life is always amazing in any form.

June - This was my effort to capture my beginning point in free form embroidery. Abstractness never gets the interested that recognizable forms get.  But I would argue, that learning to abstract is a necessary skill for any artist (or there could be a good many other uses for such a skill), since we only ever make representations of things, and never the actual thing.

July - Moving in to color. This was me marking a point in beginning to really see color. It changes your world when you do this. I encourage everyone to try their hand at color journals, even if you are like me and don't make it far.

August - I was restless to try something different. A new way of thinking. I chose the idea of a gate into a magical forest world. It marks a beginning into a more fantasy-oriented place for me.

September - Sitting by the window reflecting on the light filtering through the maples. Fall can be glorious.

October - I was moved to try something new for me. I made this small project wtih the purpose of learning how to take advantage of the yarn's properties to create interest and texture. I hope this is just the beginning of this type of work.

November - My somewhat feeble attempt to capture the forest around me. Again, a beginning for creating richer, textured embroideries.

December - My crazy santa, based on real life! This is a beginning too. As I end the year, my thoughts turn to using art to tell a story. My own stories, real or imagined. I am not sure I could do a good job telling someone else's!

This year has been busy, it has practically flown away. I'm afraid this is how it is as you grow older. It becomes even more important to grab hold of the things that are important to you. Moments deserve to be remembered. They are the foundation of who we become.

Now as I said before I have come full-circle. This is a new beginning for me now. I have changed so much myself in the past year or two. I was restless, anxious, not sure what the heck I wanted to do about my work, embroidery, art, blogging, you name it. The way is hardly clearer now. It never is or will be, but perhaps I am more at ease with that. Uncertainty is a difficult thing for us humans. But through art, you can learn to embrace it. Appreciate that it can mean a great many good things if you let it.  Explorations and discoveries await around every corner.

I can't go back to the way I used to blog anymore. It isn't interesting, it stops me in my tracks, every time. My projects are lovely and all, but they are not the important part. It's what I learn from them.  About myself, about the world, and how well I can inspire and challenge others with them.

I will end with the words I steal from a post I just made about the embroidery journal project, which I do hope you can find a few minutes to read:

This is the time to look ahead to 2013. To be thankful for the days we have together. To fill them with meaning and purpose and joy. To be better than we are now.