TO JO

Thanks. I wish I had seen your VJ post(s), but I'm going to take some of your advice, and focus on my projects more and FB less. It seems that most of those opposing me on Venezuela gave my original post a like anyway. Dore too. Were I absolute sure that nothing I said had an effect on anyone, and that I was dealing only with the intransigent will to ignorance, it would be easier to step away. But I'm not absolutely sure. 

Then I come back to the Vermeer. A lot of people copying a Vermeer wouldn't see how to make it work on similar graphic material. The prevailing "conclusion" (in the unlikely event that the concept would even arise) would be that no one would need to think of doing something so "impossible". But the concept is realizable, and there is a function to having it realized. See in my drawing of Vermeer's "Woman Tuning a Lute" how the horizontal lines of the map or the table top or the chair parallel or coincide with with horizontal lines of the graphics. Or note just how graphics lines and typesetting generally relate to Vermeer's composition, making, one hopes, a harmonious whole from the combination of the drawing and the graphic format.

Well the drawing is a metaphor for planning that keeps what is already there in a landscape while adding new elements to it that together form a harmonious whole. It's a question of relating things that the art discipline makes you proficient at imagining and composing. But if people haven't ever seen this done, they can't be blamed for not even thinking about it or for thinking that it's impossible to do. Suppose I'm one of a handful of people who can show them how such relationships could be elegantly and usefully made, shouldn't I show them? 

Beyond such queries, what I'm doing on Facebook is extending the art concept in a drawing to a much broader zone. So it's a reasonable fit for any book I might produce. It feels as if I'm posting on Facebook and writing a book all in one effort. Since I'm not sure where lack of exposure to ideas and bedrock ignorance part ways, I'm drawn to the process of blocking off conceptual leaks and cracks on Facebook in a timely fashion.  I might have lightened a (conceptual) load just subtly enough and just in time for it not to break the camel's back. I just don't have the perfect answer for such things. I'm dealing with essences, and you can't measure those.

But then, here you come. And things happen and people appear for a reason, I believe. So I'm heeding your council with some moderation. Why? You are right about not pushing my agenda too hard lest it create an undesired imbalance. (I tend to believe that one presents a thought, then backs off long enough to see where it goes or doesn't go. Then you cycle back with it again in a new way, with new information, within an altered context.) We are blessed with immense quantities of time, convenience, resources to where we can experiment. If I take a month away from Facebook, having been a flea on its back for so long, what would happen? I doubt that a month is too long to lose the effectiveness of what I attempted to share. And, on the contrary, I have to see  whether it's long enough to get me over the hump with my art show and writing work.