
Artist Steve R. Mead
Why The Long Hours?
In mid-2001, I moved to Washington, DC from Toledo, Ohio. Many people asked me why I would move to the "Murder Capitol" of the world. When in DC, I found communities rich in culture, families, welcoming grins and open arms to a guy from small-town, middle America. My first art piece was a grandfather clock that had murder statistics from the city, newspaper articles of the violence and dramatic stories of a city 572,000 people called home. I thought hard about the actual stories and not just the statistics. What must it feel like to stare at a clock waiting for that loved one to come home, to walk through a door they will never grace again. The long hours turn to numbness as the person they love becomes just another story, a boxed checked by a statistician and a joke to those who do not live it.