Infinite Regress: Paintings, Poetry, and Pictures

My friend Michael Eakes recently got back from driving through every country in Central and South America in a car, starting in Alaska. A month into his trip, down in southern Mexico, he ran into a crises of confidence, and thought about turning home. It just so happened that at his going away party he received a book of poetry from one of my good friends, Oscar Cisneros. Oscar is a lawyer by day and a poet by night, and has printed his own book of poetry that combines the paintings of his mom with his own poetry. When Michael had his crises of faith, he remembered that he had this book of poetry, and read it. The poems inspired him to go on, and to thank Oscar Mike took a photo of the poetry book sitting on a beach in Mexico:




Unbeknownst to Michael, Oscar has been scheming to pay him back. He commisioned his mom to paint this exact photo on a large canvas; Oscar sent it, and it just arrived today. Here is Michael as he his opening the package:







So this is an oil painting by Oscar's mom of a picture of a book of poetry that has a picture of a painting Oscar's mom painted of one of Oscar's poems. Ouch, that hurts my head.