Artist Reply: Hi, Anneke! Your comments always give me an emotional lift, as well as thoughtful ideas to mull over. I intended this title, coupled with the painting, to allude to three specific “world-class” events in history AS WELL, as you mention, numerous similar ongoing situations: 1) Moses and the Promised Land, as you mention in your Comment; 2) Our treatment of Native Americans (specifically those moved and confined to “reservations”), as Jerry Carlin mentions below; 3) a practice by many people of misleading (“misdirecting,” actually) freed slaves before Emancipation and all African-Americans thereafter, which nobody has mentioned yet, although Jerry did in a personal note to me. As for number (4), other general but similar practices of misleading “broken promises,” I appreciate, Anneke, that you also offer pertinent comparisons with contemporary America, and other countries, ending with, evidently, a hint to your own native land, including a mention of tulips (which I had not realized were there in the painting – and unfortunately the windmill I did consciously paint there was totally overlapped and hidden when I constructed the blue dike!). One might also think specifically, for instance, of an education such as I received in lower grades about the land of the free that we could look forward to when we grew up and finished school, of the waiting future jobs promised by colleges and institutes, and in most of our current voting world, many promises by candidates for political office, or of many political social and educational “fixit” programs for people below certain “poverty levels,” or of many developers and/or contractors ”utilizing” forests and scenic areas. Or even outright false advertising claims, internet spam being most notorious for such home or personal improvements as losing weight, for one example. Also, ever-cheerful, optimistic, and pretty as your kittens, Anneke, I received criticism beside yours that the view is too attractive and should at least be darker colored. Well, I had intended something like that when I began the painting, but it just got away from me, and I succumbed to the irresistible temptation of one of my favorite vices: my insatiable love for bright colors. I argued to myself that a chaotic landscape was negative enough, but I agree that it doesn’t look nearly as threateningly chaotic as I felt when creating it. The oddly shaped yellow areas in the distance, which could be fields, I had felt were over-lapping and very “unpromising” as tillable land. So, I will readily agree with you on that, as I wisely do on most suggestions. Indeed, still leaving the fragment of an evidently talking head and shoulders, it could well be called “OH WHAT A LOVELY VALLEY FOR PLEIN AIR PAINTING!” Without the head-piece there, perhaps something contemporary like “BLUE VARIATIONS ON A YELLOW FUGUE.” Thank you again, Ms Anneke, and if you ever happen to visit southern Virginia, I would love showing you our tulips, and a windmill. No dikes, that I know of, but you can talk to people in our states of Louisiana and Mississippi about broken dikes and broken promises. Peace, etc., Bruce

Artist Reply: Hi, again, Maria. You always make me feel good. Thank you for coming around so often, and often leaving only one word that is sufficient to make my day (and night)! All best for your own excellent creations. Peace, etc., Bruce

Artist Reply: Thanks for the conversational and sardonic comment, Jerry. Just what I'd hopefully expect from you. Too few of us artists indulge in humor, I think. I have to, to keep any vestiges of sanity, as well as employ it as a shield to deter viewers from perceiving my bonafide imbilicity. I admire very much how you manage to do such a variety of imaginative art, especially your sharp and alert spotting of the potential beauty in trash (if not already present, conceiving a combination and arrangement to make them so. But, frankly, Jerry, I'm just trying to write nice things because you live in Oregon in the area where I

Artist Reply: I'm very grateful for your encouraging comment, Heloisa! Nice to be seeing your name here and there doing kind deeds. Thank you for all. Peace, etc., Bruce

Artist Reply: Thank you, Ruth. Your comment means a lot to me. Peace, etc., Bruce