Charles Burchfield, from On the Middle Border, 1928

One of the truest things ever said about me by a critic was in a recent issue of the [New York] Times which was to the effect that I “asked nothing better in the way of entertainment than the American Scene.” This is literally true. But if I think it is true for myself, I would not form it into an intolerant theory that all Americans should be measured by it. If Robert Riggs of Illinois, for example, prefers Siam to his native state, and can produce such fine things as he did there, that is where he should paint—he is no less American for it. It is simply part of my mental make up, that I am satisfied to express my own surroundings as nearly as possible in my own way.

Charles Burchfield, 1928