have been thinking a lot about the origins of the concept of a utopia. War and political turmoil can force us to wish for something more ideal, a situation where the living world can live together in what we could call social harmony. The idea of utopia also leads to wondering about land and how to share it. French painter André Derain once wrote, “There is only one kind of painting: landscape. It is the most difficult. It has also, I believe, the most simple kind of composition. Because no one can stop us from imagining the world in the way that pleases us most.” It’s the latter part of this quote that struck a chord, as I consider such social reform—this imaginary society where exemplary qualities may be relative to the dreamer but universal in their aims. It was the great architect Buckminster Fuller who said, “The world is now too dangerous for anything less than Utopia.” In a sense, both Fuller and Derain seem to say, “The world as we want it to be is imagined, and probably never actually lived.”
