I’m not a religious person. More of a spiritual one? Maybe it’s this standing that has been the opening for people to express doubting faith in their latter years to me. Many say they believe there is something. And await a response.  I’d like to think life’s kicking would give me the edge on my younger self when it comes to this response. And it’s from this personal debate that Hope’s Last Call was set in motion. 

What first set this piece in motion was reflecting back on the perspectives of my youth in relation to the well-lived-in ones I now inhabit. 
 

In my youth I was as cocksure as most about my world, believing it was the world.  And in my world, everyone who I cared for and who cared for me was just fine.  And you know not of any other way.  We were possibly immortal.  I was a young man of science/technology and held the firm view that God and faith all came under the same realms as Father Christmas and the tooth fairy.  

 I wouldn’t say I’m a religious man now, perhaps more spiritual?  There are so, so many truths to life, often conflicting. So many perspectives, often conflicting.  And perhaps more so the older you get. 

 I look back to my younger self and say, whatever your beliefs, when you find yourself holding the beating heart of someone’s wavering faith through their latter days, you become a guardian of their faith.  And you now truly understand what is meant by faith being hope’s last call.  And you hope.  And you hope.  And you fall to your knees and break into a million pieces.  And you fix your eyes firmly upon what is unseen. For what is seen, is temporary

We look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen;

for what can be seen is temporary,  but what cannot be seen

is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4.18)

_{Medium/Fibreglass/plywood.}

_{Approximately/W64cm/H28cm/D64cm}

Additional material

Hope’s Last Call & Eden

What you don’t yet see here is that the figure in Hope’s Last Call also forms part of another piece entitled Eden (by way of the figure) youthfully aflight.  Much like that of the earlier years I’m reflecting on in the Hope’s Last Call statement, above. 

For Eden, I was charged to utilise an earlier piece/structure entitled Totem for its primal sense as a backdrop for the figure. And for some unknown reason Picasso was pressing my buttons here.  In this depiction, the figure is seen to be above all concepts of divinity by way of casting aside his wings. Clenched fist in the air. 

From the outset I’d thought of both depictions (Hope’s Last Call & Eden) coming from one single figure that could be arranged to present both sides of the coin.  

The most challenging part of this project was creating one figure that could be true to two very different perspectives. 

The only holdup at the moment with the Eden setting is devising an unobtrusive attachment for the figure and totem that doesn’t impose upon the Hope’s Last Call setting.

_{Eden/backdrop awaiting figure and}

_{wing attachment. Formally Totem.}

The wheel of mourning.

The figure in Hope’s Last Call is much as I’d  intended to model the figures for The wheel of mourning until I was taken by the human casts of Pompeii. Both pieces are of a similar subject and setting as regards the stairway.

                  _{The wheel of mourning.}