From macro to micro, I observe and absorb the landscape; from the broad strokes of the vistas that capture the incredible iconic images that define the Pacific Northwest to the small observations that tell the stories of the lives that live in this landscape. I search for the signifiers, the markers that set the region apart from any other place in the United States.

As a child of a career military family, I moved all over the United States, developing a subconscious shorthand to recognize the differences from place to place. In my art practice, I study these small “tells”, elements that reflect a region, their priorities, the economy, the history and the struggles.

I first paint the broad strokes,the obvious, the iconographic, almost like a tourist, then follow the throughline, finding the clues that feel as potent as a symbol. I look for those repetitions that become like talisman, a repeating line in a poem. I investigate these empty landscapes, filled with signifiers, until I winnow it down to where the people interact with the landscape, searching, understanding, digging into the stories that are reflective of what captures the essence of a region. This is why I paint; to understand place and gain further understanding of what is this American landscape and American experience

Michelle Muldrow
October 2022