My involvement with the imagery of the rural Midwest
began in 1982. Based upon an early fascination with area magnitude and meteorology,
work from that period suppressed any specificity that I deemed detracting from
my perception of the grand scale and nature of this arena. Thus, the work became
not only a representation of the perceptual world but also an unintentional
and awkward intercession for the regional mythology of roadside romanticism
- the bountiful cornucopia of the heartland, the Puritan work ethic, Manifest
Destiny and others. Over the years, with considerably more time spent in the
midst of working farms, I slowly began to appreciate the agrarian reality upon
which much of this mythology is founded. My exploration and experience of this
Midwestern rural realism is now the nature and purpose of my work today.
- George Atkinson
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