Kobayashi's Rock on Ernstausen’s Farm is part of a meditative series dating from 2001 to 2009, centered on the American landscape. Here function follows form as each strip of tin is used to shape a single blade of grass. Repeated a thousand times, the blades multiply to form densely shimmering fields, filling part or all of the picture plane, often wrapping around the edges of the frame.

Rock on Ernsthausen’s Farm is based on a property belonging to Kate Keller Kobayashi's family. According to Kate, although much of the series was titled after places in her native Ohio, the work was more likely inspired by memories of the artist's homeland, Hawaii, and the fields of sugar cane that covered the hills outside of Honolulu.