This week Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller sit down with artist and educator Rafael Salas for a wide-ranging conversation about rural Wisconsin, magical realism, county fairs, country music, identity, and the contested landscapes of contemporary America.

Salas discusses growing up in rural Wisconsin, returning to the Midwest after years in New York, and how his paintings inhabit a space between celebration and unease. The conversation moves from the influence of Wisconsin Death Trip to the political symbolism of county fairs, mixed-race identity, landscape painting traditions, and the challenge of making meaningful contemporary art from outside major art centers.

Name Drops and links:

Rafael Salas – https://www.rafaelsalas.com/
Door County Contemporary - https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/
Ripon College – https://www.ripon.edu/
Museum of Wisconsin Art – https://wisconsinart.org/
Newcity – https://www.newcity.com/
Michael Lesy (Wisconsin Death Trip) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lesy
Wisconsin Death Trip – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Death_Trip
Charles Van Schaick – https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/record/image/W0128W2
Mark Tansey – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Tansey
Grant Wood – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Wood
Cormac McCarthy – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy
Caspar David Friedrich – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_David_Friedrich
Johnny Cash – https://www.johnnycash.com/
Dolly Parton – https://dollyparton.com/
Willie Nelson – https://willienelson.com/
Hank Williams – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Williams
Woody Guthrie – https://www.woodyguthrie.org/
Neil Young – https://neilyoungarchives.com/
Marquette University – https://www.marquette.edu/
John McCain – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
Sarah Palin – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin
Barack Obama – https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/