These paintings relate to Polaroid images I captured outside of a number of small towns along a random rural route across the United States. The path was chosen intuitively by sight and, at times, purely by name. If a town sign pointed left, I often went right. These areas are generally devoid of people or any signs of life. The shells of homes and businesses remain. Occasionally, there is a feeling that perhaps someone may be inside...yet this is far from certain. The homes in these small towns remain standing despite their deprivation. Nature is in the process of reclaiming its ground. This process is quiet, alluring and beautiful.

What was once considered America’s “heartland” has been abandoned. Moms, pops and neighbors traded in for the convenience of WalMart and the uniformity of “if-you-lived-here-you’d-be-home-now” housing developments. Yet the framework of the former American life and its more personal systems of survival remain as a reminder of who we used to be and, perhaps, as guideposts should we choose to return to our collectively abandoned heart space.