Hope Lives: Art for ALS is an annual art exhibition in its fourth year. It is a fundraiser and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) awareness event that takes place each May in San Francisco, CA, during ALS Awareness Month. The goals of the Hope Lives exhibition are to celebrate artists and help raise awareness and funding for ALS research.

This year’s theme is Research Renderings. It is an opportunity for artists to create artwork inspired by provided ALS research images. The research images are scientifically charged, presenting visuals of degeneration and regeneration on a molecular level. At the same time, they are aesthetically beautiful, which invites artists to reimagine content, form, color and mark making in new and exciting ways.

It’s an honor to have my artworks Aspire for love and Synapses of love included in the exhibit.  Jumping off the idea of the duality between the stunningly beautiful scientific research images and the devastating disease that is ALS, I aimed to recreate the research images in an encaustic representation and then add some tweaks to bring about a message of love. I hoped ultimately to change the dialogue from thoughts of atrophy, deterioration, loss and disruption to those of healing, hope, light and love.

This year's exhibition is made possible through the united efforts of Melissa Stephens (artist & founder of Hope Lives), the International Encaustic Artists (IEA), San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, and the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI.).

Check out all of the wonderful artwork at the IEA and Hope Lives online galleries or in person at the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery. Artwork may be purchased in person at the gallery, or online from the Hope Lives and SFWA Gallery websites.