November 14, 2018

Here’s what the Weizenblatt website says about Night Wings:

David Hopes is an award-winning poet, playwright, novelist, actor, singer, painter, and professor – not necessarily in that order.  He works back and forth between the visual and oral, between narrative and mystical, to create different forms of art that are evocative and compelling.  Weizenblatt Gallery will exhibit a variety of his paintings from November 7 – December 14, with a reception for the artist on Wednesday, November 14, from 6-8 pm.

David Hopes is Professor of English at UNC Asheville.  He holds a Masters degree from Johns Hopkins University, a Masters in Creative Writing from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in British and American Literature from Syracuse.  Most would know him as a writer, whose most recent book of poetry, Peniel, is available from Saint Julian Press, and whose first novel, the prize- winning The Falls of the Wyona, is due in the spring of 2019 from Red Hen Press.  His plays have been done locally at the Magnetic Theater as well as in New York, Houston, Lost Angeles, Seattle, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and London.  Hopes’ most recent exhibit of paintings –”Works on Wood”– was held this summer at the Flood Gallery in Black Mountain.

This exhibit, “Night Wings”, are experiments, often rough in appearance.  Hopes combines canvas, plywood, drywall, scraps from torn-apart furniture, and whatever else is handy and appropriate, along with traditional acrylic and oil paints to create multi-layered images.  Several works address themes from the Bible or mythology.  Many use birds as symbols or metaphors.  They reward your long contemplation.

Can’t tell if it damns with faint press, prepares its audience for a mess, what?

On opening night he whole region is under a Winter Storm Watch. The weather is truly awful. I expected no one to appear, but in fact some did, most notably and pleasingly a number of Mars Hill students. SS and the Kostanseks appeared out of the darkness, and one of my Cantaria buddies. Interesting things were said about the paintings. None sold. The prospect of hauling them all back up the winding stair in December is almost unbearable. As soon as I left the building I was struck with agonizing muscle cramps in the chest, which interfered not only with driving but with breathing. Hobbled into the Sunoco for Gatorade. There the clerk suggested bananas, but added that she could eat neither banana nor broccoli anymore because when she was pregnant they made her sick and now she throws up even at the smell of a banana.