Middle Aged Wasteland is the second in a series (after Middle American Dreamers) of retro sci-fi pieces. Named this because I guess I was in something of a crisis, but I liked the turn that it took. A middle aged man who is balding but still holding onto what is left of his long blond hair rides off into the sunset on a vintage Harley Davidson on a Route 66 style highway in the American Southwest. The billboards get increasingly meaner as our middle aged man drives travels on. Starting with a retro McDonalds billboard with a pinup girl, and then to the All-American highway billboard pairing: An Adult Superstore billboard next to a Call-To-Jesus billboard. We’ve all seen it.

This painting took me 96 hours to complete, fully 25 of which were me doing, redoing, and re-redoing the sky before I finally settled on this. One day, I’ll learn to plan a piece in advance so I have a more clear picture of what I want to paint and can finish it more efficiently. A man can dream.