The portfolio compiled here is a series started in 2014 titled Looking For Paul. As a young child, the folk hero Paul Bunyan represented the pinnacle of masculinity to me. Even now, I’m still drawn to his folktales. My parents separated when I was quite young, and I realize now that Paul Bunyan became a stand-in father-figure for me at that time. The stories of his powerful, yet kind and gentle demeanor (a version of masculinity sometimes distant from my actual life) saving the day left me awestruck. I’d often cross paths with Paul while traveling through northern Minnesota, driving a county road system dubbed the Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway.

Following a former railroad line, this stretch of road snakes through now-ghost towns, many of which have been reduced to shells of their former glory. The folk hero Paul Bunyan is used as a promotional tool throughout this area of the country, both to encourage tourism and the labor movement. As I’ve driven this route throughout my home state of Minnesota over the years, I often stop and talk with people along the way. In these conversations and towns, I see remnants of the old folktales that inspired me during my childhood. In this work, exploring myth has been central to my practice—be it the myths that my own family tells one another (what some might call family stories), or the myth of the quintessential, idealized ‘Midwestern Man’ (in the tales of Paul Bunyan, the gentle giant).