Catto identifies with one entrenched American stereotype: She loves a good road trip. When Catto was in graduate school, she used to drive from Boulder to her parents’ ranch in Texas Hill Country, with her chow mix riding shotgun. Sometimes, she drove the 18 hours in one stretch, fueled by youth, Dairy Queen Blizzards and the romance of the road. She encountered enormous insect hatches, drifts of antelopes, rain clouds the size of planets, dreamy old pickup trucks and tree-snagged plastic bags that caught the headlights in an eerie way during the night. This painting was inspired by one of those nights.