Travel to all 50 states this summer through the paintings and photographs of artists Kate Fleming and Tom Woodruff in two exhibitions across DC:The Hum of the Road at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and People from Away at 2900 M. Spanning two years, 46,000 miles, and a global pandemic, this expansive body of work captures both the beauty and raw reality of contemporary America through the lens of two visual artists working closely in tandem in two different media.

 

These two overlapping exhibitions tell the story of Fleming and Woodruff’s travels to all 50 states in a quest to document and better understand their nation, and their year stuck at home in the DC area during the pandemic. Both artists work directly from life — Fleming as a plein air painter and Woodruff as a street photographer — and the images they make are direct impressions of moments in time. When the pair set out to capture contemporary America in the fall of 2019, they had no way of knowing what lay ahead of them. What began as a study of contemporary America grew to become a record of the world-altering events of 2020.

 

The Hum of the Road at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in Capitol Hill takes an intimate look at the artists’ life on the road in their 2000 Ford Econoline van. Fleming and Woodruff lived a nomadic life for 12 months as they painted and photographed America, facing car troubles, extreme weather, and the endless heartbreak of falling in love with and leaving a new place every other day.