Q. What do you think your parents choice of art and decoration said about your family’s values, social class, and aspirations?

A.Perhaps it goes without saying that our decorative choices say a lot about us and are often our primary means of visual self-expression.

This is a portrait from the series Suburbia by Bill Owens. Initially Owens was a photojournalist chronicling life in the burgeoning suburban neighborhoods of Dublin and Pleasanton, California. He is now widely recognized as an exceptionally skilled fine art portraitist.

Owens’ photographs are included here because this is my hometown and his photographs reflect my own family’s desire for stability, order, and middle class affluence. Of course, these desires individually expressed are often quirky and humorous and this is tenderly translated in Owens’ work. The suburbs are not necessarily about sameness and repetition they are, more interestingly, about variation on a standard dream.