My Word of the Year

Good art looks new because the artist has recombined something old to make something better.

Darby Barnard

I'm still working on my Word of the Year. I never did settle on one word for last year.

I've been thinking about the do-over words re-cycle, re-purpose, re-new, re-present. But I'm already DOING those.

I'm reusing the church window/greenhouse glass. I'm saving coffee grounds for younger daughter's compost bin and bottles for edges along the garden paths. I'm shredding paper for older daughter's paper making projects. I'm planning to use this old non-working sewing machine, which I bought from a neighborhood street person, as the base for the new mudroom sink. I have even been shopping at the Habitat for Humanities ReStore.

What I need is a word that's just for ME. A do-over word would be okay.

I like the idea of returning to some of the best parts of me and combining them with new and unknown parts of me.

I like the idea that as I work in the studio old techniques and themes will return in new forms as simply better quality of art.

I like the idea of that some of the energy I have sent into the Universe might return to me and propel me into exciting non-comfort zones.

I like the idea that I can return to the place where I thought that nothing was impossible.

I like the idea of this word, Return, as My Word of the Year.

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Walter Darby Barnard is a Professor of Art at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. His work is included in many prestigious public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Guggenheim Museum; Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art; Baltimore Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. http://bannard.com/

paper tube and pipe cleaner ornament from Lucy and Belle

BushStrokes - Word of the Year
text and photos (c) AAB
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