Kate Fleming and Tom Woodruff are two traveling artists documenting America through painting and photography through the 50 States Project. Kate paints seemingly-mundane human landscapes that may soon disappear like gas stations, strip malls, and big-box stores. Tom photographs the ugly and obscure sides of America as part of an ongoing exploration of how fear shapes individuals' realities. Together, they hope to capture and communicate the "now" of America as they traveled the United States in the months leading up to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and through the late summer and fall of 2021.

They witnessed a large and complex nation rich in diversity of culture, landscape, and ideology undergoing a national identity crisis, but through all of that, they found how remarkably similar our motives and desires are. Though we may be, as John Steinbeck wrote, a nation whose "capacity for self-delusion is boundless," we are rooted in a common desire to do our best for our families and communities. By removing illusions created by fear and othering, Tom and Kate hope to encourage greater national empathy and encourage more people to come to better understand their neighbors and countrymen.

We are a nation of dreamers, detached from our past, fearful of our present, yet filled with aspirational visions of the future. And just like the 50 States Project, we are an ongoing project with plenty more to learn.

Additional Links:
https://www.the50statesproject.com/
https://www.the50statesproject.com/wherewevebeen


Show Notes:

Guests - Kate Fleming & Tom Woodruff

Host - Grey Gowder

Music (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid Witt

Photo courtesy of Suzanne Emily O’Connor on Unsplash.

Produced by Lugus Films Media