“Art calls to the optimism within us and beckons us to breathe.”

— Ava DuVernay

When did hope become so radical?
Requiring suspension of disbelief
Or divorce from reality?
Are we better off engaged and raw,
Or disengaged and numb to blood and beauty?
Engaged! Engage your creativity. Embrace what’s raw.

“I don’t think you could ever separate any form of cultural evolution from the arts. Coretta Scott King was an artist. She understood through creativity she could bridge borders, cross boundaries, and enhance life...
These are artists. Martin Luther King Jr. was a reverend and theologian, he was also an orator and a poet. Creativity is essential to any positive development in society.”

— Hank Willis Thomas

Is hope so radical?
Am I naive for wanting to believe the world can heal?
For looking for signs of light in poems, paintings, songs?
For riding on the backs of artists braver, wiser, more honest than me,
Looking over their shoulders
To see what they see, because I don’t trust
My eyes : too blind are they
Cataracted by excess, privilege, bounty. No… luck

Stephanie Hirsch, “Indestructible.” 2016

But back to hope
Where I choose to return,
Defying: War, Corruption, Fear, Hate, Violence.
Am I wrong to lose myself in art
Instead of snark and analysis?
I don’t agree that enjoying something pretty (nostalgic, colorful, simple, naturalistic)
Reveals a lack of appreciation for the complexity of contemporary life, (ie existential threats).

Inequity exists. But so do flowers.
War kills. But love brings new life.
People lie. But also sacrifice, protecting others.
Dream a better world into being.
“Art calls to the optimist within us and beckons us to breathe.”

“[My paintings] are records of inner visual experiences, bringing light out of darkness, or serenity out of oppression.”

— Agnes Pelton

Through it all is art.
A way of telling
A record of time, place, person, soul
Pulling what’s inside out
Interpreting the unintelligible
Making visible that which is spirit, thought.

Rachel Whiteread, “Untitled (One Hundred Spaces)” 1995. Making invisible the space underneath one hundred chairs.

Is hope the most radical expression of our humanity?
When 1 in 3 girls considers suicide
According to the NY Times, February 13, 2023, “Teen Girls Report Record Levels of Sadness, C.D.C. Finds.”
Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Can hope Prevent? Control?
Can collective spirit lift a heavy load of despair from the rib cages of girls and LGBTQ kids whose hearts are breaking?
“Kids are now vulnerable to cyberbullying and critical comments, like ‘I hate you’, ‘Nobody likes you.’ It’s like harpoons to their heart every time,” says adolescent psychologist Victor Fornari.

Georgia O’Keefe “Music, Pink and Blue. No 2.” 1918

With hearts being harpooned,
How could it be overly sentimental (ie a bad thing)
To fall in love with Agnes Martin paintings?
So impossibly beautiful and sublime they make the heart ache with yearning
And connect you to the yearnings of humankind?
How could it be naive to want to disappear
Into the folds of Georgia O’Keefe’s lush petals?
When beauty calls, follow!
You might see god whether you believe
In any kind of god or not.

I’ll gladly be a radical
Or naive
Or sentimental.
Into the woods of bliss, hope and optimism we go.
Rejecting that dark curtain intent on blanketing us in dread,
Push through, rip and burn it.
Choose to move free of its weight.
I choose
I choose
I choose to believe
In the power of pretty things
In the goodness of people
In a collective ability to improve and survive
I choose to hope.

Tavares Strachan, “You Belong Here.” 2020. Installed at The Momentary, Bentonville, AK.

Let’s be models for these kids. Why not choose to model a belief in creative potential?
The runway will not be straight or stiletto-friendly,
Model anyway.
”1 in 5 girls said they had been the victim of cyber bullying.”
Model love, bliss, creativity, confidence, independence.
”14% of girls said they had been forced to have sex.”
Model grit, determination, resilience, power.

Not saccharine terrorism. Not wealth signaling… A choice.
A choice to embrace gratitude, optimism and love.
Force your bright hope into the world so it can wrap those aching for it
In its radical, defiant embrace.

*Cover image, Shyama Golden “Carry On.” 2022.