Instilling hope in our students
#hopes for the day (2014)
ABOUT THE ART PIECE
I found the actual process of making this inspiring and meaningful, and I hope to use process in more and more applications. I began with a search of hashtag hope on twitter. I recreated the tweets indescriminately on these strips of paper, the same size as fortunes in fortune cookies. I did this very purposefully, because I think those fortunes are almost ancient tweets. As I spent time, typing these up, printing them out, cutting them up, I became pretty familiar with them. Some were just silly – and some were quite serious and even sad. I used encaustic, because I liked the idea of making some of these little thoughts that were tweeted in an almost ephemeral media, something more formal and preserved. As I pressed them into the hot wax, I felt like I was applying a band-aid, caring for the hope of another person somehow.
I wanted to include a few images that symbolize hope in my region. I live in the South and this is where my roots are. I care deeply for this region, and there is still a need for a lot of healing here. I am hopeful. So I chose an image from a painting I did of a little clapboard schoolhouse in rural Alabama from the 1920s. Education has been a symbol of hope, from the very beginning, a hope for a brighter future. Today, the pristine dream of education seems a little faded and uncertain. I also chose a quilt pattern – this is the monkeywrench pattern and it was thought to be a symbol used for the Underground Railroad as a sign to “gather your tools, prepare your mind, it’s almost time to leave this behind.” I imagine that would be quite a symbol of hope. And a cicada wing, the wing seems to symbolize hope – the idea of having freedom of flight. The tree, with fresh green leaves, year after year, hope springs eternal in our own backyard.
I found the actual process of making this inspiring and meaningful, and I hope to use process in more and more applications. I began with a search of hashtag hope on twitter. I recreated the tweets indescriminately on these strips of paper, the same size as fortunes in fortune cookies. I did this very purposefully, because I think those fortunes are almost ancient tweets. As I spent time, typing these up, printing them out, cutting them up, I became pretty familiar with them. Some were just silly – and some were quite serious and even sad. I used encaustic, because I liked the idea of making some of these little thoughts that were tweeted in an almost ephemeral media, something more formal and preserved. As I pressed them into the hot wax, I felt like I was applying a band-aid, caring for the hope of another person somehow.
I wanted to include a few images that symbolize hope in my region. I live in the South and this is where my roots are. I care deeply for this region, and there is still a need for a lot of healing here. I am hopeful. So I chose an image from a painting I did of a little clapboard schoolhouse in rural Alabama from the 1920s. Education has been a symbol of hope, from the very beginning, a hope for a brighter future. Today, the pristine dream of education seems a little faded and uncertain. I also chose a quilt pattern – this is the monkeywrench pattern and it was thought to be a symbol used for the Underground Railroad as a sign to “gather your tools, prepare your mind, it’s almost time to leave this behind.” I imagine that would be quite a symbol of hope. And a cicada wing, the wing seems to symbolize hope – the idea of having freedom of flight. The tree, with fresh green leaves, year after year, hope springs eternal in our own backyard.
| wiseman_indiepaper.pdf |
