Radcliffe Bailey was visiting Houston in 2001 when Tropical Storm Allison flooded the city, shutting down the artist’s exhibition at the University of Houston on its opening night. Bailey returned the following year with a new series of paintings in which water was the dominant motif, symbolizing life passages and migration. Regarding Uprooted, Bailey commented: “I want to play on the idea of . . . sitting between the two worlds, like someone in a boat or in the water. Then the person is between the deep space of the sea and the broad expanse of the sky.”