Mostly Indiana

Artist Statement

This body of work examines how rural traditions and history are interpreted and transformed in the present day. My goal as an artist is to create projects that provoke critical thinking and reflection about patterns and precedents for contemporary culture.

I’ve spent most of my life in Northern Indiana and grew up on a farm near the small community of Walkerton. That farm was my first home; the people and the land which shaped me into who I am. These images explore both my personal history and a people’s history, grounded in a sense of place. They share a narrative quality, but the stories they tell are open-ended.

I began this project over two decades ago. At times, I have struggled to resist depicting small-town life with a sense of nostalgia. If you look over the scope of the work, you can see the passage of time. Some of the people and buildings I photographed are now gone; one-off family-owned shops have been replaced with corporate-owned dollar stores.

Most recently, an increasing acceptance of public incivility and aggression has visibly changed rural life. Swap meets that once sold animals and flea market fare now allow the sale of handguns and swastika flags. Reactionary political beliefs have inserted their presence on roadsides, at festivals, and in casual conversation.

Rural spaces belong to everyone. People of color, queer and trans individuals, and practitioners of all religious beliefs live in rural communities. One might pretend this is not true, but statistics say otherwise. Over time, I hope my images begin to reveal this complexity as it unfolds.