The Heartening Light– At the West End Gallery
When people can see a vision and simultaneously recognize what can be done step by step in a concrete way to achieve it, they will begin to feel encouragement and enthusiasm instead of fright.
–Erich Fromm, To Have Or To Be?
I am a fan of psychoanalyst and humanistic philosopher Erich Fromm. He was bornin Germany in 1900, fled the Nazis in the early 1930’s, and settled in America where he lived until his death in 1980. His 1941 book Escape From Freedom is a classic that postulates that though we claim to desire freedom and personal independence, the vast majority of us run from responsibility, preferring to be ruled over. This is often cited as a leading factor in the rise of authoritarianism, then and now.
But in the passage above from his 1976 book, To Have Or To Be?, writes of how progress can be achieved in the face of our fear of freedom. It’s an incremental process that takes place with clarity and transparency. And if you think about it, that is how most positive progress and change comes about. When we form and accept a distant positive goal and see the benefit as well as a path toward achieving it, we often put aside our fears and doubts to willingly sacrifice and work towards that goal.
Well, ideally that is the case. We live in a world of misinformation and disinformation now with powerful entities that foster doubt and fear in the guise of an openness and transparency that is often clouded in the anonymity of the cyberworld. Consensus is a rare thing as is the patience required for incremental progress in a time that demands instant gratification.
But even in this environment, the way of progress often follows this path. And it starts with a vision of hope or, as this painting puts it, The Heartening Light.
Here, the hope and distant goal appears as the rising sun. The fields in the foreground symbolize the work, nurturing, and patience required to let progress fully germinate and grow. The Red Tree appears as a symbol of the awareness and desire of that goal. The Red Roofs represent the community required to bond together to achieve that goal. The body of water is a symbol of the passing of time it will take to get to the desired goal.
It is a hopeful piece in my eyes, representing the best of our potential as humans. Hopefully, its optimism is not yet naive.
The Heartening Light is at the West End Gallery as part of my current solo show, Eye in the Sky, which closes next Thursday, August 24.
Below is an update from the West End Gallery on the upcoming Gallery Talk, at which the painting shown below will be given away in a drawing for those in attendance:
Hope Rises– Win This Painting at the Gallery Talk on Saturday!!
All seats are filled for the GC Myers Gallery Talk on Saturday, August 19th from 11am-Noon. Any remaining availability will be STANDING ROOM ONLY, up to the point of maximum building occupancy.
WAITING LIST: Please use our Contact Form, if you have not already done so, if you would like to be added to the WAITING LIST for a chair in the event another attendee cancels. Link provided below. On the form, please provide your full name, contact information (where we can reach you on the day of the event), and the names of any guests that may accompany you. You should receive a Confirmation Email to be added to the WAITING LIST within 24-48 hours after you have filled out the form: westendgallery.net/contact/
Redtree Times 