CHARLIE HEWITT’S HOPEFUL
His Public Art Project Takes Off
Maine artist Charlie Hewitt said, “My work is about communicating on subliminal levels to people who understand poetry.” He has made stunning art for years that truly is poetry. His work has included stunning painting, bold wood cut prints and impressive sculpture. His work is highly collected in museums all over the world. We have examples of his work included in this story.
Now he turned during the dark days of the covid pandemic to a very simple, large, lit, metal sculpture that says HOPEFUL. It has become a public work project for the state of Maine as more than a dozen towns and cities have the sculpture mounted in prominent places along with smaller signs. Soon a large sculpture of HOPEFUL will be installed in New York City. He has a different large metal sculpture already on the High Line walk in Manhattan. It is the intention
of the artist, Charlie Hewitt, to have created a public art project that has an extraordinary positive impact on people during these challenging days of getting through the ramifications of the pandemic. He has succeeded. Charlie Hewitt said, “That being hopeful is encouraged but also responsibility.”
We have provided two videos that are a great way to meet the artist. One is about HOPEFUL and one “Charlie Hewitt, American Artist” is the most revealing of Charlie and what makes him create such wondrous art. I have always found with Charlie that he captures a rare joy for himself whether painting, wood cutting or making sculptures. “Painting takes me to a place where nothing else takes me,” he said. He also suffers the torment of most all artists of the frustrations and failures as well. Looking back over the years he said, “Art connects me in touch with the past, present and the future and a long banquet of people.”
He came up in this world as the son of a shoemaker and became a shoemaker too. He escaped by getting to college and when he graduated he made his way to Greenwich Village in the 1960s. In New York City, he worked at construction to eat and buy materials for his art. His studio was on Bleecker Street and I suspect very near the White Horse Tavern, which he frequented with the likes of William Burroughs. Charlie was educated by the streets, bars and bedrooms of New York. He hopes his story inspires others, “If I can get through the fear, addictions, the suffering I have survived and gotten to a better place you can too.”
Charlie Hewitt’s work is available through Jim Kempner Fine Art in Chelsea in New York City.
