whispers
I heard someone say once that the opposite of faith isn't doubt, but certainty.
I'm not a person of faith. I'm only religious in terms of the disciplined rituals and routines I bring to my workbench, my tools, my mise en place, and my materials. To the extent that I could be considered spiritual, it is only in the way that I often describe creativity in mystical terms.
What I am though, is an aspirant of hopefulness. And I think that when it comes to hope you could say the same thing as you can about faith. It's opposite is not doubt. Is not resignation, or even cynicism, but surety and certitude.
"Hope", Rebecca Solnit says, "is an embrace of the unknown" and unknowability. A bold and defiant "alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists."
Hope is not delusion. It doesn't shy away from the concrete, what-is-ness of reality. Instead, it "locates itself in the premises that we don't know what will happen and in [that] spaciousness", it faces it all, and asks ‘what if?’
It wonders what could be.
Hope whispers in the unpredictability and reminds us that there's still time and room enough to do something.
P.S. - In my last newsletter I shared some spectacular work by
Taylor Walters using some materials from my Collage Paper Grab Bags. was kind enough to let me share a few collages that she made from those grab bag materials too, and they are incredible! If you’re not subscribed to her Substack, you really should! I have a feeling there’ll be more of these coming!
I love the way she’s tied together all these textures in such a unique and seamless way. She’s created these fantastic points of interest, and that mark-making!! I know it sounds funny, but mark-making in collage work is something I struggle with in my own work, so I appreciate it so much more in Andrea’s. Andrea, in case, no one has told you, you’re total badass! Thanks again for letting me share these!
If you want to pick up a grab bag you can find them here.
P.P.S. - ICAD 283-285 - all the collages featured in this newsletter are available for purchase here.
P.P.P.S - Last one I promise. One of my collages was featured in the new issue of Tint Journal. They did a wonderful job pairing it with a beautiful poem called “Small Wishes” by Nawel Abdallah you can check it out here.
Hi Duane- thanks so much for the shout out! That was so nice of you. I’m still working with your papers. I like them because they aren’t exactly what I would normally choose so they push my work in different directions. Thanks again for the inspiration!!
Václav Havel's take, "hope is a state of mind, not of the world. It is an orientation of the spirit and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."