Fighting Over Land: America's Legacy...America's Future?

Charles Schridde chose the subject of his painting The Fence to represent the state of Texas, which, in his own words, "seems to go on forever." The land and the fence dividing it near Clifton, Texas, also represent the pervasiveness of the need throughout our nation's history to separate private land from public, to claim a piece of property as one's own. The history and future of conflicts arising from the needs, on the one hand, to have and control private property, and on the other, to limit and regulate land use for the good of the community as a whole, are discussed in Harvey Jacobs' Longer View. The artist, who concentrates on painting landscapes and figures of the American West, works out of his studio in San Juan Capistrano, California ( www.schriddestudios.com ).