Working Land refers to two facets of rural landscape: the idea of working the land as a vocation and as a description of productive ground. My family tree includes immigrant ancestors who made a living from working the soil and some of their descendants who carry on this work to the present day. That personal connection to working land inspired the project.
map of her rural neighborhood in the 1940s, as remembered by marlys
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Kubitz farm, 2015: Marlys spoke to me of the importance of neighbors to social life and work life in the 1940s of her youth. I worked with her to construct this map of remembered people and farmsteads within walking distance of the Backstrom farm, her home place. The sledding hill in her map is the same hill seen in Cows on Hillside.