One of the most ambitious works inspired by Aladogan’s Western roadtrip — photos of which hang on the wall at right — is "Before Departure (all my changes were there)," a 100-foot-long installation resembling a giant crossbow stretched to its limit. This was one of the first sketches for that piece. It resembles a bow viewed from above, but filled with shapes Aladogan says are an abstract cross between feathers, knives, and the sharp, wind-eroded landscape of Utah and Nevada. At the top, she traced the back of an eagle’s beak she’d modeled in epoxy. “It’s where all the forms converge, like at the end of the highway.”