In the Distance

Joe Liles, standing next to the cupola on top of Watts Hall.

In the Distance

1989

My family had a farm about three miles outside of Wadesboro, NC. We lived in town but worked the farm. In my early childhood, I remember cotton being grown and harvested on the farm. Then, the farm transitioned to cattle. I have pleasant memories of fishing in the farm ponds, camping in the woods, hunting for arrowheads and petrified wood, and wandering in places unknown to me. I have some memories not quite as romantic of digging fence post holes and stringing barbed wire. On one highpoint of the farm near an old dilapidated farm house, you could look out over the cow pastures and see my hometown on the horizon. On a clear day, you could see the town water tower, the steeple of the Baptist Church and the steeple of the Methodist Church. From this highpoint the land fell away in layers to the distance transitioning from shades of green to shades of blue and purple. I sought to capture all of this in my print, “In the Distance,” with twelve handcut stencils for twelve different colors. This viewpoint was one of my favorite places to be on the farm.