4 October 2007 9:09:02 pm (2009)

Acrylic on canvas

18" x 24"(46 x 61 cm)

ABOUT THE "SECURITY" SERIES

The "Security" series documents surveillance camera images lifted from the web. Boundaries between personal and private have eroded. This series examines the public availability of personal images, how those images are translated by viewers, and how the internet functions on the boundary between public and private.

In the absence of adequate information, the viewer fabricates a story. By painting security camera images, I am assigning significance to situations from which I am completely disconnected. Through painting I create narratives about my subjects without their knowledge or permission, and I encourage viewers to do the same.

Image appropriation has been used to critique creativity, originality and authenticity. In the "Security" series, I appropriate images, but I exhibit paintings of images instead of the photographic images themselves. In part, I do this in order to emphasize that recasting an image as "artwork" is the beginning of a process of interpretation. Both painting and viewing become forms of image manipulation.