Farm Series
Don't Sell The Farm:
An Ongoing Series
of Diorama-Style Paintings.
A few years ago, introducing myself to a long-time Seattleite, I mentioned that
I'd moved to this city from Nebraska. After explaining where the "Plains are
located" and a little begrudgingly calling them "the Midwest" for
simplicity's sake I was welcomed to this city in an unexpected way: "What's it like
to come from the ugliest, most god-forsaken part of this county?" the man asked.
I assumed that like most people, this gentleman had only flown over or driven
through the Plains on his way to a more exciting vacation site. I looked up at
the slate-colored sky. The freezing mist coated my eyelashes.
I thought about sitting on the deck back home on a dry, warm August night.
I thought about every driver waving and nodding on the way into town. I recalled how
the sky turns from blue to pink to green to black in less than two minutes
before a storm. And then I told the man,
"Yeah. It's pretty bad. You should stay here in Seattle."