Growing up in rural Tennessee, I was fascinated by all things urban. The large metropolitan cities I saw on television glittered at night with lights and cars and well-dressed, beautiful people on their way to beautiful restaurants and parties. City life was a beautiful life and all urban people were living it, it seemed to me. This was, of course, a naive and romanticized vision. I somehow overlooked or discounted the crime stories and the images of less well-off people. Of course I now have a more complex and balanced view of cities. I still love the energy of them when I am in one, the people crowding the sidewalks, getting coffee at a local roasters, exploring and walking neighborhoods, and the museums and backdrop of beautiful buildings. My cityscapes are both a throwback to the days when I idealized cities and my way of honoring the reality of them, with all their fortunes and flaws.