road trip

... in the parking lot of one of those interstate
"plazas"

I met a couple of guys on bikes from Ohio who were on a road trip to Nova Scotia. I asked  the guy about the quiet Harley and it turned out that we had both raced motocross. The man with the dual purpose BMW had seen the Ewen McGregor across Mongolia movies.
He owns a new media advertising company. The conversation went from Canadian health care to the Orwellian erosion of democracy into to fascism to, what about  that box on the back of your truck? to sailing the north-west passage.. to fluid dynamics, engineering and
what do I do?
I happened to have these two paintings in the truck in the "art box" so there was a pop up art show and the
conversation went on through Andy Warhol to Monet and back to Kandinsky and  his "the spiritual in art."
Kandinsky contrasted  what he envisioned with  the more superficial,"art for art sake"
 in1912... the banner under-which most  contemporary
art is being proudly displayed.
When Mr. Harley asked what?.... the potential of setting up some other, non verbal, subconscious connection between the painting and someone contemplating, "what"... reverberations being picked up as when a tuning fork is touched to the top of an acoustic guitar was the " what". What I wished I had thought of adding,
in answer to his "what" about the paintings:
As you two are out exploring, those bikes are the vehicles of your exploration. For you the discoveries will be shared in the photo you take or the stories you tell.
For me those paintings are the both the vehicles of exploration And the record of discovery to share.