In 2016 FREE us to not know, but trust anyway.

Choosing one word isn't an easy task, yet that is
what I assign myself to do every new year now.
BRAVE in 2014. COLOR in 2015. This one large
word/idea, like a block of raw basswood, begins
the new year with a promise. If I will work at it
with both wild abandon and careful hewning,
something from within it will be set free. 

Unfinished acrylic painting started in December. 24"x 30"
Free me to not know, but trust anyway.

I need words, and ideas. And trust. And stories
with texture that follow childlike curiosities.
And brave color. And subtle earthy scents. And
the freedom to be in the space where I do not
worry about money, or the history of art, or the
legacy of my life, or pleasing anyone.

So, you see, my word for 2016 has to be FREE.

That is the raw material I need right now. Free-
dom to push and pull, and dig out the weeds to
expose something new. I can not be afraid to get
these hands dirty and make a little mess. I know
that I can not be too afraid of what will be
excavated, because by now at age 45 soon and
after all the bravery of 2014 and the color of
2015, I know it is much scarier and messier to
hide or deny what is within us. Free us to trust
and not always know.

Thanks to the work and words of artist Kiyomi
Iwata in the article Always Unfolding by Joyce 
Lovelace in American Craft magazine, for 
jolting me out of a winter funk and shaking 
my 2016 word FREE free. 

Joyce Lovelace reports, "Curiosity, creativity, 
and optimism guide Kiyomi Iwata in the evolu-
tion of her life and her art... Her artmaking is
fluid and free."  "I am totally open," she 
[Iwata] says, "And because I'm open, I can
float. For me, that is an exciting process in
itself."