"May there always be hope where you stand."
Everyone feels hesitation and conflict at the moment of choosing their own path. But it is in that very process that learning and discovery lie, and by accepting both light and shadow, life begins to shine more richly. Into this painting I put a powerful energy for remembering the true strength sleeping within you and taking on life boldly, again and again.
The Feeling in This Work
For those who are unsure about choices in life, or who want to find their own worth. Art to draw out your courage, inspiration and abundant energy.
The power to stand up is what moves life forward. Even if there is hesitation or anxiety, the power to turn it into hope is already within you.
Concept & Background
A work on the themes of "life's choices" and "inner worth." I painted it with a prayer that you can believe in your own courage and intuition and move toward the best future.
Technique, Color & Visual Expression
Layering bright yellows and oranges, soft pinks, greens and blues many times over, I composed the canvas so that particles of color seem to sparkle. The spreading light of the many-layered brushwork symbolizes the "many choices" and "inner energy" in life. Up close there are countless dots and wavers; from afar the whole forms a single harmony. That visual experience is itself a symbol of a person's journey.
On Making This Work
I put into this work the message that "the answer is not outside but within." Trusting the map and compass within you, and the power to get up again and again even when you fall: that is the true strength for moving through life.
May it become a chance for viewers to regain the courage to give off their own light fully in this world, and to turn hesitation into hope.
The same work cannot be delivered again, but with Personal Order Art, I paint a one-of-a-kind work just for you through a conversation with each person.About using the artwork
More about this painting
Hope is a subject of psychological research
Hope may seem like a vague feeling. But in psychology, hope is an important subject of research.
In the 1990s, C. R. Snyder, a psychologist at the University of Kansas, proposed "hope theory." Snyder saw hope not simply as wishing things will get better, but as a state in which two things come together:
- Pathways: being able to imagine several routes to reach a goal
- Agency: the will to set out along those routes
When one road is blocked, you can find another, and you feel you can keep walking. That is hope as Snyder understood it.
Having many choices
In "Songs of Hope," I layered bright yellow and orange, soft pink, green and blue so that particles of color seem to sparkle. The spreading light represents the many choices in life.
There is not just one road. Simply being able to think so makes the heart a little lighter. That is exactly what Snyder's hope theory tells us.
Hope can be nurtured
Research by Snyder and his colleagues reported that people with higher hope tend to show better outcomes in many areas, such as study, sports and physical and mental health. Hope is not thought to be fixed at birth; it can be nurtured by breaking goals into small steps and thinking of several routes.
The song of hope playing within you
Each time we hum a song, it lights a lamp in the heart.
I hope that whenever you see this painting, you remember the song of hope quietly playing within you.
Sources
Snyder, C. R., et al. (The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1991)
Snyder, C. R. (Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind, Psychological Inquiry, 2002)
¥60,000
tax, frame & domestic shipping included
shipping outside Japan: flat ¥8,000
approx. USD $400
A one-of-a-kind original painting.
