Jesse's Blog: The Art of Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all…

--Emily Dickinson

The November art show at Hibbleton Gallery was called "The Art of Hope." It was a collaboration with Fullerton College's Honor Society and Hope University, a leader in fine arts programs for adults with intellectual disabilities. Here's a description of the show from curator Lisa Lorusso:

These are the artists of Hope. This is their practice, their work; they practice the art of hope every day. Each life is a wish, a wish for something wonderful to happen. The artists represented here embody the definition of hope in their very being, and their work is an artifact of their creativity and joie de vivre. Each work is a reflection of the artist, the person and their desires, honest and direct in their essential styles. And through some cosmic union their collective work bares threads to the vast lineage of artists who have gone before them. There are echoes of the palette of Philip Guston and the scrawlings of Sol Lewitt and Cy Twombly, and yet the work represents the unique visual language of each artist. Hope is such a simple word, expectant with anticipation, and yet it has been used wantonly, so that it runs the risk of losing its meaning in its overuse. In today’s political climate, rife with inequality, the word hope is spoken as a matter of course by speechmakers, but it is the pure of heart whose utterance of hope really speaks to us. The work offered here is an authentic expression of that hope.

Tonight was the closing reception, and I took photos of the artwork. The real show-stopper for me was a paper mache installation of the Hope University band, the Hi Hopes, by artist Sharon Mauck: