Jono Tew came west to rural New Mexico several years ago and was immediately awestruck by his surroundings. Having grown up by the ocean he had never experienced anything like it. Rural New Mexico has a pastoral solitude unique unto itself. A tractor sits in the shade of a tree next to an old horse-drawn plow. What was originally planned as a few months stay turned into a permanent move. After years of portraying this idyllic scenery however, Jono found himself becoming restless. While rural imagery had dominated his initial experience in the west, he had begun to expand the scope of his exploration. Changing an established style is not so easy to do, and it wasn’t until his studio burned down that he was truly able to make the break. Jono returned to a process he had been developing years earlier. A more abstracted style that combined aspects of his favorite movements in art: Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.