I have a notion that for most Americans, at least on some level, dramatic landscapes function as the signature of our vision of ourselves as the Alpha culture on the planet. This obsession perhaps reached its expressive apogee in the paintings of 18th and 19th century mythscape artists like Durand, Moran, Bingham, Cole, and Frederick Church. You cannot walk away from viewing one of these works many of them on a gigantic scale without feeling that our republic is literally the embodiment of new heaven and earth. And so I didn t exactly pick up my revulsion of weeds independently. There is a big historical precedent for this posture.
Weeds don t much fit into the dream.
But there came a time recently when I revisited the whole ethos that surrounds weeds. And now I can say with some conviction that I believe weeds have really gotten a bum rap. I ve taken a real fancy to the little bastards. Tender feelings even. Better play the pipe very lowly on this one.