6" x 9"

The national mood: a coiled fist.

As much as we have to be grateful for, it seems we have just as much to be angry about.

Perhaps it’s our right as citizens not to know, instead of actually believing we know things.

I’ve decided that it’s high time I give up trying to take credit for things. Taking credit for things is a waste of my time.

Perhaps the system is outdated, that no matter how modern we like to think of ourselves as being, something about us will always remain outdated.

There was a time when I thought I’d found the perfect match between identifying as a capitalist and my day-to-day practice of socialism. It turns out that I like giving things away, having made them originally and then hoping to return whatever it is I’ve made to the rightful owner; or, in some cases, destroying what I’ve made, then putting the objects of my art-making in the trash bin to be recycled.

This way of making things permits me to stay under the radar, making no object larger than 6” x 9”. Making a poem is ok too; not a long poem but something akin to minimalism.

I like to think that one of my newer paintings can fit on the head of a pin, as can a short poem.

Painting on a Head of a Pin, Untitled, 6” x 9”, acrylic on cardboard, photo by author, September 2023.