Join Voyages by Road and Sea featured artist Kelly McQuain in the West Gallery for an up-close look at his Whitman Sampler. McQuain will share the origin of this unique sculpture and explain the significance of its hidden parts.

McQuain writes this about his artwork:

"The Whitman Sampler is a box designed to delight and surprise. It became a way for me to slip inside Whitman's Leaves of Grass and grapple anew with the good gray poet's famous life's work. I think of it as a visual poem, an homage to Whitman's opus and an educational tool.

Based on an advent calendar, each box of the Sampler opens to reveal excerpts of Whitman's verse as well as found objects repurposed to reflect and critique his text.  My hope is that curious viewers will use the Sampler as a springboard for investigating Whitman's poetry more fully. Think of it as play, a means to see how Whitman's myriad ideas echo and resonate against each other in a visual way."

Image: Detail of Kelly McQuain, A Whitman Sampler​, mixed-media sculpture, 2019.