Description

This original relief print is small in size (3″ x 4″), but mighty in message. It comes to you in an 8″ x 10″ black wooden frame with white mat.

The work is part of Hope McMath’s #100DaysofHope series, which began by creating one linoleum block image everyday for 100 days as a means to bring daily artmaking into her practice. Hope reflects on issues that matter to her most as she looks for ways to sustain and persevere. It isn’t a blind hope of unfettered optimism, but a hope that is based in truthtelling, understanding, love, equity, and the actions that will bring a brighter future.

Each work is hand printed in a limited edition of 10.

About This Image
“Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.” -MLK

Protest. It comes in many forms…marching, picketing, boycotting, shutting down streets, walking out, taking a knee. It was a weekend when we were reminded of the power of protests and their limitations. Dr. King believed deeply in the importance of peaceful protest and the inevitability of rage spilling over. Marches have been a tool in all human rights progress…the suffragette movement, the Americans with Disabilities act, civil rights for African Americans, environmental justice, limiting nuclear proliferation, anti war efforts, workers’ rights, and marriage equality and protections for LGBTQI people. It is meant to disrupt our tranquility, to shake our apathy.

I am inspired and motivated by a long history of protest and those I see today who are willing to do so. I can’t speak for why they protest….I do so because I want to demonstrate dissent, shake off my own fear, to hear the voices of others, to express my rage without creating harm, and to be surrounded by similarly-minded people trying to push for progress. I march because we are not done and I take very seriously the baton that has been passed by those who marched before us.

Protest without the real work does little, but it does something. I am trying to find energy for both….to not protest for its own sake, but to do the work behind the message. The march demands we be heard. It shines a bright light into dark corners. It reveals what those in power would rather hide. And it is our right.