On a visit to my childhood home to Ohio, I wanted to paint the things that made that area of the country unique to me. Youngstown and the surrounding area (Steel Valley) was well known for the steel it produced (checkout Springsteen's song Youngstown). Most of the mills closed in the 70's and the valley has seen more than its share of hard times since. The people there are some of the hardest workers there are, but without the opportunities, they've had a pretty rough time of it. They work hard and play hard, as the factories and bars that dot the landscape will attest. I wanted to paint some of the factories before they all disappear. So many of them are gone already.