My piece represents what the dust storms of the Great Depression might have looked like from a farmer's porch. I chose the Grapes of Wrath because of how it shows the humanity of man and his strength to continue against all odds. I was moved by Steinbeck's portrayl of the horrors of the Great Depression and the strength of the characters to rise above these horrors. The dust storm with which Steinbeck begins the book is almost a biblical plague, I tried to represent that in my protrayal of the dust storm. The quote I based my feelings on was this, "the men were silent and they did not move often. And the women came out of the houses to stand by their men-to feel whether this time the men would break". My piece shows one of these moments. This piece was created by first painting colors on a blank page digitally. These colors were warped and mixed to create a swirling design. Several layers were created and blended together to create more depth to the colors and swirls. A picture I had taken of a tree was cut away from it's background and turned completely black. This was added to the swirling pattern and moved to arrange it to the side......as if it were a tree in someone's front yard and being seen from the front porch.