Geoff Martin, Burgundian Vineyard Geoff Martin Photograph (2009)

VANISHING POINT Matterhorn, K2, Everest: he has scaled them all, but there is one vast peak he'll never reach no matter how hard he tries— call it waters of Night or a mirage— the more he approached it the further the goal receded from him. Leonardo and Alberti tackled this problem in their art, Dürer wrote about it in his Instruction on Measurement. This vision gave birth to the Renaissance— parallel lines meeting at the horizon at the apex called the vanishing point. Here the road is a mountain laid flat on earth and some call him a fool going nowhere but he still pursues his dream at the School of Athens learning about the swan's whiteness and mysteries from the master himself. He sees the Platonic Lambda now here everywhere— the soul in the center of our face and in every step we take, in flight of geese, the Pyramids, and in Finnegans Wake on his lasting quest looking for grace at end of the rainbow.                   Peter Y. Chou                   Mountain View, 3-2-2011