Laguna College of Art + Design

Mass media is the source of inspiration for my body of work, which I have titled Seen

and Forgotten. Contemporary societies that have access to modern media formats are

bombarded with photographic images. Newspapers, magazines, video, film and the Internet

use a photographic format for presentation and this has a profound effect on what society

thinks and how it sees. I believe that we, as a society, take photographic information as

factual and therefore truthful. This photographic ‘truth’ is often manipulated by traditional

sources of authority, like governments, large corporations, and religious institutions for their

own agendas. Image-based media can be used to create widespread fear, a false sense of

patriotism, or as propaganda to sway public opinion. Religious hatred or military action can

be packaged in a way that it can appear moral and just. An unfortunate result of so much

mass media is that its consumers become numb. Another blown up house, dead child, or

example of religious intolerance becomes commonplace and accepted. We wait for the next

newscast, Internet blip, or newspaper headline and quickly forget the horrendous that

happened yesterday. In essence we begin to suffer from visual amnesia. It is this powerful,

photographic, brainwashing that interests and inspires me to paint and draw the subjects I do.

By restaging of media driven “photo ops” through drawn and painted artworks, I hope to call

attention to the events that are being fed to us and cause a rethinking of those events.