Maps of Utopia

Forbes.com, the online site of Forbes magazine, on Thursday said timber and real estate baron Tim Blixseth has just upped the ante in the price of the world's most expensive home, planning to build and sell a home for $155 million.

The 53,000-square-foot stone and wood mansion will be built at the Yellowstone Club, a members-only, residential ski and golf resort near Bozeman, Montana developed by Blixseth.

That tops the $139 million asking price for Updown Court in Windlesham, England, which was listed No. 1 in the Forbes.com list of the world's most expensive homes in 2006.

It also exceeds the $125 million that U.S. media mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump is asking for the renovated estate he owns in Palm Beach, Florida.

Blixseth, who ranks No. 322 in the 2006 Forbes 400 list with a $1.2 billion fortune, said he had already received interest in the home.

"Some of (the world's richest) just have to have the best. Price is not an issue," he told Forbes.com.

The 10-bedroom mansion will sit on 160 acres and will come with a private gondola-like chairlift that will carry residents to the Yellowstone Club's private ski slopes, an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, and a home movie theater, and it is fully furnished. © Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

The above article exemplifies the underlying theme of all my work - the socially destructive nature of sectioning-off the best portions of the country by the self-indulgent rich in an effort to create a private playground for the wealthy elite.

I’ve called myself a socialist painter on more than one occasion. While I admire many aspects of the socialist ideal; I do not believe it can exist in our reality, simply because the human soul lacks the necessary amount of purity. I include myself in that assessment. If given the opportunity for great riches – I’d take it, every time. Who wouldn’t want 50,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain front and a staff to maintain the land?

Like all my work, the digital camera cannot do justice to the subtle color nuances that occur in the map-like paintings of the utopia residing in my mind. The utopia I imagine, not unlike most attempts at true socialism, is ultimately a failed society. The maps I paint serve to give a visual presence to the society prior to the moment of over-escalation. The ever-present slight inequality of plots designated to citizenry; the imperfections of pathways between the residents. It’s all there, waiting for the moment when the inconsistencies will crash-down and the people demand someone with power and authority step-in to make everything “right”. Do you recall the biblical stories from your youth? Remember the moment when Israel cast-off their rule of Judges and demanded of G-d a King or single authority figure, like other nations? All utopias fail, but it doesn’t make them any less appealing. – DN