Roughed up, worn in is an examination of the rural midlands and the life of community who live deeply intertwined with the land. These pieces, #1, #2, #5 of the series, use personal experience as a framework for understanding the glory of flyover country. The mix of synthetic and organic, the inherently valuable and the valueless are vivid contrasts in rural life -- the natural world side by side the manmade. The series follows my experience from late winter to early summer.

Rural melancholia in Baker-Miller Pink features five paintings that emulate Edward Hopper's American Realism. Reminiscent of Baker-Miller Pink, their messy overpainting all but overwhelms the subject of the works. Baker-Miller Pink, coined as the “most calming color,” has been washed over jail cells and bedrooms alike, only to find that after prolonged exposure, the inhabitants find the feeling of calmness replaced by alarm, distress, and aggression. The welcoming warm lighting finds itself in direct conflict with its surroundings, offering either a commentary on feelings of cold-season existential claustrophobia or domesticity in “flyover country.