The way sculptor Chris Cleary sees it, optimism is a sentiment that’s been in short supply of late. So his newest work aims to spread more of it.

The Jericho Center artist and three-time winner of the Seven Daysies readers’ choice award for best sculptor has been busy on his latest roadside project: “HOPE.” Its four letters stand seven feet tall, 25 feet wide in total and are “larger than life,” he said.

At his On the Rocks studio, Cleary, 48, supports himself as a full-time artist through various projects, including headstones, pet memorials and stone word gardens such as the one he created at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester. But the artist of 24 years is best known for the huge wooden sculptures that he and his wife, Kim, set ablaze each year for solstices and other celebrations.

Inspired by his experience at the Burning Man desert festival in 2009, Cleary builds, then torches, his wooden sculptures — including a leprechaun, a woolly mammoth and, at Burlington’s annual Highlight New Year’s Eve festival, the lake monster Champ — in events that are both performance art and community spectacle.

“My portfolio is basically a pile of ashes and screws,” he said. “But I’ve made a lot of people smile.”

This time, Cleary has other plans for his wooden creation. His “HOPE” sculpture, like his previous projects that read “LOVE,” “JOY” and “BE KIND,” is an effort to illuminate these otherwise dark times. He plans to move the sculpture to a different Vermont location every couple of weeks, erecting it at schools, libraries, museums and other high-traffic areas. Its first stop is at Taft Corners in Williston, then the Essex Experience.

“I love what Chris does,” said shopping center owner Peter Edelmann, who owns two other sculptures of Cleary’s and plans to install one of his rock gardens at the Essex Resort & Spa, which he also owns. “Bringing hope to Essex is so apropos for today.”

“I haven’t felt this way about a project in a long time,” Cleary said about the oversize letters he builds using narrow strips of wood, known as lath, which turn gray as they age.

Cleary had wanted to have the word on display by the time Vice President JD Vance visited the Mad River Valley for his family ski vacation last month, but he didn’t get it finished in time. No matter. Cleary has since borrowed a couple of vowels from another sign and taken “HOPE” on the road.

While some people may read “HOPE” as a political statement, Cleary said its message is vague enough for people to interpret it however they choose. It could be read as a wish for the future of the nation’s democracy — or a loved one undergoing chemotherapy.

In high school, Cleary said, he dabbled in drugs and needed to check himself into a rehab facility. Given Vermont’s opioid epidemic, he said he would love to post the inspirational word outside a drug treatment center.

“If I saw the word ‘hope’ when I was there, it definitely would have sunk in,” he said.

Because each letter costs $700 to $900 in raw materials, not including labor and transportation, Cleary has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for it. As of press time, he was nearly halfway to his goal of raising $6,000.

“This could be a big thing,” he said. “The project is bigger than politics, bigger than religion, bigger than climate change. It’s a broad message of hope.”