This year I plan to give myself some assignments to complete. Assignments to encourage me to stretch my wings a little bit, to keep me exploring and questioning. The first one I’ve set is to spend the next 26 days working my way through the alphabet, picking a few words for each letter and defining and exploring what they mean to me.
Assignment: a task to complete.
Words fascinate me. They can be personal but there has to be agreement on the definitions for meaningful conversations to happen. Words have history and they have relationships. They are a tool we use to communicate but they sometimes fail us.
Inspiration comes from a long time affection for dictionaries and alphabet books. I also stumbled upon Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life last year. The words that I am choosing are generally the first five or so that come to mind when I think of the letter. For example, agitate because I was doing the laundry.
A... Assignment, assemblage, art, agitate, apple and alter.
Agitate: To stir with force, to disturb, to bother, to try to initiate change.
The indigo vat has suffered. It needs more heat and regular stirring. Maybe agitate is too strong of a word here? I should have tossed something wool in the washing machine to felt/full.
Apple: A fruit that is red, yellow, or green; generally mild in flavor. Eaten raw or cooked. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Part of the same botanical family as roses. When cut horizontally a star shape becomes apparent. The fruit that Eve is said to have picked from the Tree of Knowledge.
Art: Something that is much debated but has something to do with communication. Which leads me to wonder, how precise does a definition need to be?
I am currently reading Art and Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland.
Assemblage: a group or gathering. A form or type of art. Someone to explore more: Joseph Cornell.
Alter: to change.
All of these images have been altered.
And if I have any one "word" that I want to explore closely it has been and continues to be:
Alter.