Starting A Journey

Main Street Station watercolor and ink  5.5x8" by Meera Rao

At the start of a new year I always wonder if I should give myself any goals.  Over the years I have had a mixed record of keeping my resolutions.  This year giving myself wiggle room, I have decided to sketch 'something' everyday and post it on "sketch-today sketches 2017"   on Tumbler. 

The idea is to make it easy for me to post a photo of the day's sketch everyday and have all the sketches for the year in one place - to track and see the efforts of each day thru the year :)  This first week, couple of days I barely managed a simple sketch and then on other days I managed to pull out my watercolor set and spent a good deal of time on the day's creation. I really enjoyed keeping a art journal/sketchbook during my stays in India over the past five years, but somehow have not been disciplined about maintaining it rest of the year.  I hope this year is different :) 

While surfing the internet last week, I came across an article  on choosing  a word for the year. I liked the idea and decided my word is “present” — as in be present in the ‘studio’ (i.e anywhere to sketch or paint) – everyday as much as possible; 'be in the present’ while doing art – not worry about how something will turn out or not; to remember that whatever talent I have been fortunate to be blessed with is a ‘present’ to be fully enjoyed and be grateful for :) 

'present' my word for 2017

I really have to push myself to not procrastinate, not to be afraid of failure or rejection, and accept whatever shows up on the paper and celebrate everyday. Hoping the word will be a daily reminder to hold up my end of bargain and keep up with my goal of sketching everyday.

I came across a obituary in New York Times for artist  Tyrus Wong - aged 106.  He was an incredibly accomplished painter, illustrator, calligrapher and Hollywood studio artistan.  He was the artist  for Walt Disney’s 1942 animated classic, “Bambi.”  His  is a story of  talented  hard working immigrant artist who remained largely unknown to the public. He faced much discrimination and marginalization  but remained a true artist - creative till the end. 

I was really moved and inspired reading Wong's obituary and an article about his work -I hope sketching everyday will help me as he said : ‘If you can do a painting with five strokes instead of 10, you can make your painting sing.’

So Happy New Year to all!  What word will help you be inspired and create in 2017?  Please do share your goals and your 'word'  for the year :)