peter rowntree paintings

Here are some paintings. If you have any questions, you can contact me here. If you are interested in buying anything, most are available on flat grey wall.

Painting is like any other language, like English or German or math or music or movies. It has in common with other languages that flashy technique cannot compensate for having nothing to say. In fact, an abundance of technique in the service of babbling vacuity is more hideous than plain honest stupid babbling vacuity. I used to say I wanted to give you something like Snow White's apple, something shiny and red and luscious and round, inviting you to participate in your own destruction. Now I refuse to seduce you. It's unseemly to sell the Truth. When I was a kid I had technique. Now everything I do is fumbling, clumsy and inarticulate, often just grunting, or finally, mute pointing. Here is some of that.

Of Faith, Hope, and Charity, the only one worth anything is Charity.
Charity is good.
Charity is very good. Be kind. Be helpful. Be generous.
Hope is silly.
Believing in or desiring a particular outcome in the whole complex distribution of possible outcomes is a waste of time at best.
Faith is very very bad.
Every belief is partly wrong. A belief held lightly, in accordance with observation, is called a working hypothesis, and even a working hypothesis holds the constant danger of becoming a place to waste the rest of your life. One of the best ways to the Truth is to unbelieve everything you believe as quickly as possible, and then unbelieve this. Faith is belief held against all new evidence, against all natural feeling. Along with tribalism and the pervasive but insane notion that the end justifies the means, it is the cause of, and justification for, most of the evil that humans do.

If you are a political unit, here is how you can best ensure the peacefulness and well-being of your people.

First: leave them alone. Realize that the coercive power of the state is inherently evil, and must therefore be used with great restraint. John Stuart Mill, in explaining the purpose of his essay On Liberty, put it thus:

The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him must be calculated to produce evil to some one else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

Second: tax them correctly. Governments need funding, and that usually means taxation. Tax equations should be continuous and centripetal. They should tend income distribution toward the center, not away from it, and they should gently compensate for the injustices of fate. Here is my personal contribution, a method of computing income tax using an integral of the Sigmoid Function.

If you're interested in photographs, check out the work of my friend jessica rath.