Manifest Destiny 2006

Curator: "Manifest Destiny" painted by Bo Bartlett in 2006, captures a very specific intersection of modern travel and timeless landscape. The scene features a woman gazing out of an airplane window at a majestic snow-capped mountain. Editor: Wow, there is a distinct, quiet melancholy here. Like a dream suspended somewhere between departure and arrival. The colors are muted, almost sepia-toned which lends it a beautiful sense of nostalgia despite being painted relatively recently. It almost has this subtle hum of romanticism to it. Curator: Absolutely, and that’s something we see in Bartlett’s work. He consistently grapples with American ideals and contemporary life, framing them often through this romantic, almost idealized lens. There’s a definite commentary here about how our perception of landscape has changed through technology, like viewing nature through a screen. Editor: It makes you wonder, what is she thinking? That distant mountain--is it a symbol of aspiration, an escape from daily life? Is it that old Romantic impulse to try to reach a point where human ambition confronts the sublime. It could be the metaphor of being so close yet eternally separated that hits home for me. Curator: Indeed. What Bartlett presents here touches on themes of progress, the sublime, and even the environmental impact of air travel. It invites reflection on the price of seeing the world from this vantage point, the detachment it creates. Editor: So, it isn’t a simple landscape—it's loaded. That single figure framed against the vastness makes the painting so deeply affecting. It's as if her gaze is acknowledging not just the beauty but a yearning—the space in between where we are and where we long to be. Maybe all travel is that feeling, distilled. Curator: Ultimately, it's the artist’s intention that allows viewers like ourselves to ponder these things—this is where it seems like art triumphs, as a testament to progress but also as a memento of the things that progress might sacrifice. Editor: I guess the beauty of it all lies in those paradoxes. Seeing something like that mountain from the distance has changed forever— and yet it can hold as much beauty and inspiration from this view of an airplane. Thanks for making me think differently about the painting.