Hope is the thing with feathers

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

Collage painting

12" x 12"

$200.00, framed

Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune--without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson

I've been thinking about hope a lot lately and have started a little series on the topic. This is the first. I used illustration board for my substrate and started painting with acrylics, adding visual texture in many ways to the large sheet of board. When I got to a stopping point I cut the big board into smaller pieces in several sizes, including this 12 x 12 piece. Then I started playing with composition and came up with this. The feather is a photocopy of a peacock feather from my brother's back yard in Arkansas where he struts around hoping that his long dead mate will show up again. I transfered it to the painting using acrylic medium, and after weeks of indecision I did the stamping of the lines of Emily Dickinson's poem.

It's offered in a black wood frame.

Jo