The painting is called “Ruins of Crop Fields After a Storm.” It's textured, heavy and chaotic. It is how the soil looks after the downpour. You can see the thick strokes of paint pushing up against each other, like furrows that used to be clean-cut but got washed by too much water. It’s a mess and that’s kind of the point.
I wasn’t trying to paint something sad. I was trying to paint what happens when the balance tips. The land wants water. But this is too much all at once.
Rain, Drought, and Everything in Between
In the last few years, we’ve gone from barely any rain to more than we know what to do with. One winter storm after another turned flat farmland into standing pools. And crops? They can hold their breath underwater for about two days. After that, things go downhill fast.
It’s frustrating to watch. Farmers do everything they can. They try to drain the fields, dig ditches, and prayers. But at the end of the day, nature runs the show. You do your best, but Mother Nature wins in the end.
Painting as Witness
This painting isn’t just about farming. It’s about what happens when nature, humans, agriculture get overwhelmed. But the farmers keep going anyway. They have a way of adapting, replanting, trying again.
