A Testament to the Power of Shared Hope

I had the privilege of being a part of a very special evening, A Celebration of Hope, that was held at the Merion Tribute House a few weeks ago. I created an empathic art experience for the event.

Before that evening, I had spent several hours reflecting on my own feelings around hope. I asked myself what hope means in the context of something you feel cannot be solved or fixed but that every ounce of your being wants it to be. I felt a deep ache of pain during this reflection but out of that emerged colors of the sky in my mind. Looking up into what would be a beautiful clear sky and seeing clearly that there is a path forward. So, the underpainting I created came out of these feelings. Soft blues, grays and pinks filled the canvas.

With the underpainting complete, I went to the event excited to see how this collaborative expression would unfold. Sharpies and canvas in hand I went to the event.

“Leave your mark expressing hope on the canvas and we will create a collaborative original artwork together,” I said. Many marks were made on the canvas that night. Every mark included a contribution to the cause of The Penn Memory Center.

I took the piece home to my studio after the event. I contemplated what I saw in the marks. I began thinking about what it means to be a person in Philadelphia and how much Penn is a meaningful part of our city. In my mind, I saw the sculpture commonly known as “the love statue,” by robert indiana (1928-2018), that came to be embraced by Philadelphians and the city’s promoters as a distinctive icon for the city of brotherly love. I was struck by the idea of writing the word “hope” in a similar way to the sculpture. So that was the next step. I sketched out the word in my sketchbook and then took it to the canvas making sure that the marks were not obscured but were somehow intermingled with the letters.

I decided to paint the hope fully on the canvas and I accentuated every sharpie marking with paint and texture. When that was complete, there was a lot going on in the canvas. I was taken with the fact that there is struggle associated with hope. I could feel the struggle within me and the simplicity and joy in the canvas wasn’t capturing that. I felt frustrated and a bit confused. How would I capture these emotions of struggle that must be worked through in order to make it to hope that resides somewhere deep within all of us.

I began covering over everything that looked perfect and precise on the canvas. I slathered all different colors with sweeping strokes. As I did, I stared at the canvas which now looked completely different. Where do I go from here, I wondered. I saw several spots within the canvas that had imperfections that I thought I wanted to highlight so I began taping these areas and from that emerged triangular sections that I brought bright and cheerful paint to. I kept going and kept seeking new spots within the canvas to highlight.

And then, it was done. Surface of Resilience, Depth of Hope, a collaborative expression of hope. Hope for a cure, hope for new resources, hope for families, hope for caregivers and more.

The name of the piece reflects the process and the emotions I felt from myself and those who marked the canvas. It will be an enduring part of the Penn Memory Center when they move into their newly renovated space.

If you’d like to see a short video highlighting how the piece unfolded visually, take a look here.