In Hindsight 20/20 this morning, Matthieu Lachance, who presented an entertaining and of course beautiful clinic about his group’s modelling journey, dropped this amazing juxtaposition:
“The more we made it boring, the more it stood out.”
He went on to elaborate that people were excited by the mundane because they recognized it. This thought meshes exactly with my own aims when modelling anything, but Pembroke in particular. My ideal is to capture a time and a place in a way that nobody alive remembers, but to make it so familiar that they feel they could have been there.
You should subscribe to Matthieu’s blog for it’s full of thoughtful insights about this hobby.
Pembroke:87 
Excellent observation. I’ve attempted to say something similar, but only managed to do so in a less efficient way. I think that’s part of the extraordinary appeal of the work of Pelle Søeborg. I also think that’s the secret behind the revolutionary style of the Dutch Masters in classic art history. When they painted the mundane, they elevated their subject matter and they offered something that was more relatable to the masses. Until then, art had reserved it’s eye for privileged subjects. I have a hunch that’s why “country” music is so popular among folks who have little if any agrarian connection. Have you noticed how modelers are attracted to one-off odd subjects that stand out from the sea of the ordinary? Yet a layout featuring such oddities is less relatable compared to one populated with the ubiquitous and mundane?