Posted by Sarah McCann on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 Under: Power
I have work up in a show titled: Hope-A-Holic at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY. The quote from the curator that keeps getting used in the press is about how artists use, "delusional optimism and senselessness [...] to sustain hope." I probably should have read the show description closer before I agreed to be in the show (I was excited to have my work in a gallery, it looks so much better there than in my closet) because there is something I find extremely depressing about people believing that delusional optimism is the same as hope or that it has anything to do with hope. Hope is not believing unconditionally that things are going to get better. Hope is about action and the way one proceeds in life and in the world. A great quote from the book Beyond Fear, "Hope is the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out." Hope is not believing that the art one makes will change the world. Hope is speaking and acting in such a way that goes against the horror of the world that has been created even if the only change it produces is making a spectacle of oneself and then hope is figuring out how to proceed from this place of spectacle. I am filled with great hope. I see possibilities for the world improving, but I also see where we are at now and understand that what I do, even if it is the right thing to do, will not have an effect if I am the only one doing it. We all have a choice as to what we are going to do in this world, how we are going to live, the impact we make, and what we leave behind. Hope is realizing this choice and making the best decisions we can, not only for ourselves, but for others, our children, and the future. And sometimes, even with our best decisions, we will fail, but without hope we lose power, we do not acknowledge the power in our decisions and the potential that they have.
This blog will address issues of communication, art, and life from my point of view. It is a means for me to keep writing, thinking critically, and finding meaning in my life and work.