Classic Still Lifes (From Home Improvement and Decor Magazines and Websites)
2007, 5” x 5”, archival digital prints

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Images in home improvement magazines and websites, are abundant with perfect domestic settings. There, arrangements of flowers and fruit often reference the history of art, as seen in the art books included as props in these images. I searched these magazines and websites for still lifes that I could name from the history of art, and found there in the periphery small Chardins, Roger Fentons, Edward Steichens. I digitally scanned these little arrangements of perfectly placed fruits and flowers, and printed them in black and white on metallic paper, adjusting them in Photoshop and applying Photoshop photo-grain filters, to look like 19th century daguerreotypes.

As the first art historical expression of domestic perfection, (with its attendant implications of wealth, privilege and control), the still life is easily utilized, through the pervasive photographic image, to promote the promise of domestic bliss. My intent in using these collective still life images is to draw attention to their construct and seductive use.