We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
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This new painting, a 24″ by 30″ canvas that is part of my Home+Land show at the West End Gallery, is a piece that really has strong appeal for me personally. Maybe it’s the warmth in its colors and the way its forms and textures flow together. Or maybe it just has something to say to me.
I call this piece Believer and, for me, I saw differing forms of belief throughout the piece, as seen in the obvious reference to religious belief as represented in church and steeple.
The farm and silo I saw as a symbol of a belief in the earth and one’s own self-sufficiency, a belief centered on common sense and knowledge. I saw the Red Tree as the believer, as FDR said in 1940, that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon. It is a symbol here of the dreamer, the explorer. The believer of a better future.
The radiating sun represents a constant for all of these beliefs. We all believe that the sun will come up each day. It has always done so and I believe that it will probably continue that way for the foreseeable future.
I guess the point is that, unless we have abandoned all hope in ourselves and this world, we all have a belief system of some sort, whether it is in our own god (or gods) or in science and knowledge or in a better world beyond the horizon.
As for myself, I believe I’ll have another cup of coffee…
Redtree Times 