“I DO NOT TROUBLE MY SPIRIT TO VINDICATE ITSELF…” (WALT WHITMAN) III

Scroll down to see how this piece looks in a room. This piece is exhibited at AAF Hong Kong through the gallery Artaflo.

“I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood…I exist as I am, that is enough” is what Walt Whitman wrote in his poem “Song of Myself,” which lives in his poetry collection, Leaves of Grass.

It’s rather difficult to inhabit this sentiment on most occasions, but it’s quite the thing to aspire to. Social patterns often insist on explanations of ourselves, which can be a fatiguing exercise.

This is a robust and spirited expression that didn’t give a fuck about over-explaining itself or promoting itself. I find wonderful movement to the shapes, and a spontaneity in how the use of wax forced the paint in certain directions. It had to be this way.

Part of a series.

24h x 24w x 0.75d (inches); acrylic and wax on wood-backed canvas