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2023 – Acrylic on canvas – 100 x 150 cm.
I spotted the words ‘Think Poetic’ on a city wall in Rome, somewhere near the Vatican. 3 black-skirted friars passed these words during, what appeared to be, a daily routine in the form of a joint walk. I captured this image with my camera. There was definitely poetry in the combination of the city of Rome, the friars and this text.
‘Think Poetic’ kept wandering through my mind as a kind of credo or truth without becoming concrete at any point. I made the same writing, recur in my painting. Only this time it is a neon lettering that lights up my green yellow room, devoid of human presence, almost like a beacon or a kind of mandate.
The green-yellow interior is filled with gulls joyously flapping about. There are no doubt many more beautiful and sympathetic birds than gulls, but for me, when it comes to their flying abilities, gulls embody a certain craftsmanship and artistry. They are those fearless flying acrobats that I’d wish to be myself. I always get fascinated by them, they seem to put a kind of dare, pleasure and awareness in their flying like no other birds. Others will say it’s just their nature, instinct. Behold the difference between reality and poetry.