Artist's Statement

Advertising has a history of borrowing fine art images and concepts for the purpose of selling products and services. This series of works borrows advertising images and slogans for the purpose of creating art. Ad media slogans and visuals are recycled into fine art montages that document the selling mechanisms of advertising and the manufacturing of consumer desire.

The messages presented to the viewer in Advertising, on the surface, are direct and unambiguous. But the closer one looks, the more unclear the messages become. What are they actually saying? What are the implications of buying more while thinking less? To paraphrase William Burroughs, aren't we being sold a cure to a disease created by the seller?

This series of artworks is about exploring the confusing messages of Advertising. By scanning and cutting up parts of print advertising and then recompositing the messages, in juxtaposition to other messages, I'm attempting to provide a visual experience that stimulates exploration of the latent content of primetime contemporary Advertising.

These artworks are documentary deconstructions of a sort. Innocuous Advertising messages repeated over and over become extremely powerful in molding social pressure to conform to a lifestyle of irresponsible consumption of natural resources. By becoming aware of the messages and effects of Advertising, hopefully, we consumers will ignore them, and buy only products and services that benefit or replenish our natural environment.

Hopefully these works can contribute to a growing body of study analyzing contemporary consumer/corporate culture. By bringing destructive unconscious behaviors into the light, we can begin to discuss how to modify our lifestyles to be harmonious with the natural world that is our home.