Smashed Strokes Hope belongs to Joan Snyder’s breakthrough series of abstract paintings, sometimes referred to as "stroke paintings" because of the way they emphasize the primacy of the artist’s brushwork. Distinct areas of paint seem to have been sprayed on, smeared on haphazardly (perhaps with a hand or a cloth), or applied carefully to create vertical and horizontal clusters. Prominent drips, smears, and stains appear throughout the canvas. In this riot of color, there is a palpable tension between regularity and irregularity, pattern and chaos, control and spontaneity. Snyder once said, "I wanted to tell a story and I wanted there to be different sections. I wanted a beginning, middle, and end, many different parts, happy, sad, tragic parts, many things happening at once, different instruments, different sounds, rhythms."