Images of North Dakota and the Midwest flatland--vast expanses of expressive grids of grain punctuated with cultivation--are always with me.  These are the fields I plowed in my youth and well into adulthood.  The stark markings of furrowed land, patterns of irrigation, and stubble fields have a poetic quality, and in them I find a rich and meaningful source for visual expression.  Abstracted, their imprint seems even bolder, representing colorful independent sections that coexist peacefully despite their diversity.  I left the North Dakota farm and its long, difficult workdays and inclement weather to explore the greener pastures of artistic pursuits, only to be pulled back to the fields.