Sept. 2009
By Sherri Baierl
Medium: Mixed (collage, conte, acrylic, graphite, silver leaf)
Notes: 1st place NWTC Art Walk, Shown at Gallery Night Downtown Green Bay, Shown at the ArtGarage 2009 & 2010
Hope is as elusive as a holding a bubble; like dreaming of having wings. Both are beautiful but not something that you can experience physically. And if you touch a bubble it pops unless you get those
creepy ones that never pop (and that just isn’t right).
Wings are something you can touch but flight is not something we will ever really get to experience. We can wonder and dream. We can imagine. But that’s not the same. I was struck by the figure drawing classes I was forced to take, seriously, but later thankful for the experience (although conflicted about it). The woman drawn here always seemed like she was playing a role.
For some reason I always thought she felt like this was something she had to do. In my own mind I played with ideas like that she thought it would bring her something or provide an open door. I wanted to see what she was looking for sort of like when someone suddenly looks at something that catches their eye and all those around them look as well. But I never asked her.
In the image the woman is covered for a number of reasons, which I won’t go into here, but mostly because I think those of us who truly hope for something open up a very vulnerable place inside. And most of us won’t share it fully with others not unlike covering your body.
Hope is elusive, sometimes right in front of you and sometimes something you mourn over but vulnerability we venture toward off and on. Often, it is very personal and unspoken and there is a rare beauty in that.
