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It's extremely difficult to be from the heartland if you're trying to show your work in New York. Most people simply are not interested, period, for many different reasons. When I did this drawing installation, at the time I felt that it was strange and unsettling as an image. But when I got to New York it fit right in there. So having a foot in New York, has helped me with reinforcement of being able to do something that is not going to necessarily be received in the Midwest with open arms.

Iowa has given me a safe place to do work in a sense. I didn't find living in New York to be that nurturing or conducive to actually making work. It's nurturing in terms of ideas and seeing things. But Iowa really is definitely a place where you can be quiet and alone and think about your work and not feel the constant pressure of the city and the constant noise and the sense of everyone vying for a piece of the pie.

I did not like the East Coast, even as a small child. There is a tremendous sense, from the very early years of childhood, about where you're going and how you stack up. It was a real liberation for me, after I got done with my undergraduate work, to get west of Pittsburgh. And I would have to say, I love the Midwest. You can do exactly what you want, and the stakes seem lower—and maybe that's a function of being a stranger.

There's not a lot of people around who come and see my work. So for a period of time that was good. I could mess around and not be judged. Now I kind of wish that there was a larger population base to support my work—and that there was more people who were involved in contemporary criticism and writing.

It's very difficult to get out of Iowa with your work. There's this great art going on in Iowa, we don't know about it, there's not enough population to buy it and really support its artists, so its artists are basically teaching to exist here. And yet there's a reason for staying here because it's a nice environment, and people are nice, and you can make a living, and there's a certain kind of comfort in you're not having to contend with certain stresses that you might if you were in a really large city. And I can raise my kids here, and make art. So there's a really good part to it, but I'm hitting a point where I'm feeling that I need more support for my work. I need to take it to the next step, and it's very difficult to do here.