Artist’s Statement:
Hope weaves “joyful noise” throughout her works. She uses spontaneous color and movement in abstract formations to shape, inspire, and excite the mind. She captures the raucous sound of color in the wild and lets it swirl and fly and shout, barely contained by the edges of the canvas. White Noise lulls us in to calmness and rest; Joyful Noise is the sound of stimulation and awakening. Hope has been experimenting with color and movement for the past 25 years. Using acrylic paint on canvas, she blends dynamic imagery with the colors of the paints and the textures of the materials to create rich vibrant designs. One of her favorite methods of creation involves two canvases of the same size being individually painted with acrylic paints. When dry, one is removed from the frame and cut into strips. The second canvas is then, partially cut into strips, and the first canvas strips are woven into the second canvas. This continues until all the strips are completely merged into one piece. Other of Hope’s work often uses liquid acrylics and a negative transfer process with self-cut stencils to layer multiple colors on industrial wool (felt) painting surfaces.
Hope Gelfand Alcorn is a native Pennsylvanian, graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in social welfare; has an associate degree in Nursing from Tompkins-Cortland Community College in Dryden, NY; and has a Masters (MPH) and a Doctorate (Dr. PH) in Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh. She currently resides in Pittsburgh, where, she develops protocols for a non-profit that designs and conducts pre-clinical and clinical studies in breast and colorectal cancer to improve treatment and advance the standard of care. Hope has entered her work into numerous juried exhibitions, and in local, national, and international settings. Locally, her art has been exhibited at the Hoyt Institute of Fine Art, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Brew House Association Gallery, Spinning Plate Gallery, The Mendelson Gallery, Robeson Gallery, HUB-Robeson Center, The Latrobe Art Center, The University Museum, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, The Erie Museum, and the Harlan Gallery. Nationally, it has been in gallery exhibits in North Carolina (Salem College Fine Art Galleries), Kansas (Wichita Center for the Arts), New York (St. Bonaventure University, Strohl Art Center, and Fowler-Kellogg Art Center), Ohio (Cleveland Museum of Art and Kent State University Museum), and Texas (Museum of Texas Tech University). Internationally, Hope’s fiber art has been shown in Vancouver, Canada (Round House Community Center), and Sydney (The Parliament House) and Brisbane, Australia (The Gap Gallery of the Australian Forum for Textile Art). She is also active in two local art guilds, the Fiberarts Guild, and the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh.
All images copyrighted by Hope Gelfand Alcorn. Artwork on this site may not be copied or reproduced in any form without permission from the artist. Last updated, September 2024