The landscape as subject for the traditional art market is of particular interest because its idealized nature that makes it both attractive unreal.  Because of this I am interested in interrupting these spaces and beautiful landscapes with images of trash, toxic waste and HAZMAT figures in order to question these conventions of tradition.  I work with humor, primarily in the form of irony, to contradict the idealized beauty of these landscapes.  Irony also plays a role in questioning the place these images sit in a contemporary art context.  Have these reproductions of still famous historical art pieces become less legitimate due to mass reproduction and commercialization, or does it still hold as much weight in the art world as the real thing?  I feel that question varies per viewer, just as the question of “Is Thomas Kinkade an artists,” varies from person to person.  While a reproduction possess the same character, brush strokes and imagery as an original is lacks the presence in time and space that the original was created according to Walter Benjamin, author of “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 

     While the gap between high and low art is vague and ever changing, I am not trying to define it.  I am more interested in the images that have become commonplace: images of beaches, piers, tourist locations, landmarks, etc.  I am interested in the marketability of these images and how commercialism has created a marketplace in the art world, were an identity can now be created through the images we have a stake in and call our own, even without fully understanding the historical context some of them exist in.  When a work is reproduced on a massive scale it loses the aura that was present in the original work as well as the uniqueness that is lent to an image through the traditional context of image making.  In losing uniqueness, Walter Benjamin claims that an image begins to be viewed in two separate scopes; the lens of being received in the context of tradition and ritual, and how an image is valued with a more political and marketable understanding.

     I work primarily with landscapes as a way of commentating on images that are typically used as wall decorations in order to create a sort of identity for those who own them. I have begun to think how identities are created through use of images. As people long for an idealized landscape the disparity between the viewer and the actual place becomes so far apart that they are willing to lose the authenticity of seeing a landscape for an image that portrays what they long for.  When this compromise is made the original aura of experience is lost for something more tangible that is easily reproduced and marketed.  However, because someone owns this image does not mean they have experienced this creation in its fullness and originality.  Because someone owns a reproduction of a van Gogh in their bathroom they are not necessarily informed on the art world.  This idea of using reproduced images to inform others of our selves begins to fall apart, especially with the idea of mass reproduction.