It is not what we have, but what we enjoy that constitutes our abundance.
—Epicurus, Principal Doctrines (ca 280 BC)
This is another new painting, 30″ high by 15″ wide on canvas, that is part of my Guiding Light show that opens tomorrow at the West End Gallery. It is titled Land of Plenty.
When I while I was working on it, and afterwards as well, I felt that its meaning was in how its colors and compositional rhythms expressed the beauty and plenitude of the farm fields and the surrounding landscape.
A vast cornucopia that provides for all.
That might still be correct but this morning I am not so sure. Taking the words above from Epicurus to heart, I looked at this piece from a different perspective. The lines that section off and divide the fields seemed to now serve as barriers that separated us from the surrounding abundance.
It was land owned by others. It wasn’t for everyone. As if it was owned by someone greedily saying: The land is rich and giving but only for me, not for thee.
I was seeing it as being representative of how we often talk about nations being wealthy or poor. For example, we like to boast that we are the wealthiest nation in the world. And looking at the fields and factories, the many banks and McMansions, or the numbers on multiple spreadsheets, that might be objectively true.
But that doesn’t mean it translates equally tor the average person.
Now, before you start yelling Commie, Commie at me, let me explain where that fits into my thinking.
What I am saying is that we may be indeed surrounded by wealth and abundance, but we are not defined individually by it. As Epicurus stated 2300 years or so ago, it is not what we have but what we enjoy that defines our true wealth.
In this painting, at least for this morning, I see the Red Tee as being amidst the gold of the fields that are not available to it. But what is free and open to the Red Tree is the rising sun on the horizon, the fresh air it takes in, the beauty of the mountains that call in the distance, and the open road that winds through it all.
The freedom to simply be.
All that it needs in the moment.
That’s a land of plenty.
Take this all with a grain of salt. I don’t know how this will hold up as a reading of this painting. Probably won’t last until this afternoon, let alone tomorrow or a week from now.
And that’s okay because it’s not for me to explain it now. What I saw in it this morning is just the perception of a tired, anxious person still sipping his first cup of coffee in the dark.
It speaks for itself now in its own voice. Eventually someone will hear that voice and whatever truth that is in it will be revealed to them alone.
And that is as it should be.
My annual solo show, this year titled Guiding Light, opens tomorrow, Friday, October 17, 2025. The show is now hanging in the gallery and is available for previews and prebuys. There is an Opening Reception from 5-7:30 PM. Hope you can make it there!
There is also a GALLERY TALK taking place on Saturday, November 1, beginning at 11 AM. Watch this space for further details.
Redtree Times 
Sometimes, it’s better for me to enjoy one of your paintings before reading your interpretation! I loved this one. It evokes the pleasure, the abundance, and the communal labor of harvest time, whether in my Iowa years, or much later in rural Texas. It always was satisfying shelling corn or driving an auger wagon, and there’s nothing more moving to me than the sight of a farmer working at night by the light of his tractor. All that gold in your painting? That’s harvest-ready corn!