"Hope is not a guarantee, and that's what makes it so hard." Surrounded by tens of unfinished white frames, I couldn't help but to see this statement reflected in Alicia Zanoni's process. She was busy finishing her show when I stopped by to interview her, a show which challenged her to explore new styles and mediums, none of which she could guarantee would "make sense."

Her time was well invested, however, and her new show "Stubborn Hope" is a beautiful interpretation of hope's influence in everyday life. The Harrison Center recently participated in an artist exchange program in India, and Zanoni was one of the artists selected for the program. Prior to the trip, she had already been interested in moving her work beyond the representational. Experiencing the, "brilliant, conceptual, creative, vibrant process," in India, Zanoni took the opportunity to explore more conceptual work herself. Wary of straying too far from her representational expertise, "Stubborn Hope" hopes to bring the ability to relate the landscape artworks to more ambiguous work.

Generally known as a landscape artist, Zanoni's recent work breaks into the conceptual exploring, "hope in terms of what [we] experience on a daily basis." The first pieces Zanoni shows me are from "Day in Day Out," a series of seven cotton-candy colored tiles and seven darker tiles representing the mundane places of hope throughout our everyday lives. These pieces remain open to the viewer's interpretation, and capture the ambiguous, bright essence of hope. Her show transitions to more traditional landscapes of dusky city streets lit by car lights, representing hope's entrance into a dismal picture. The bright whites and reds of the lights sharply contrast the neutral scenery, and illustrate a "rupture of hope."

Come see Alicia Zanoni's "Stubborn Hope" in Hank and Dolly's Gallery this month, and, Zanoni added, "let the painting speak for itself."