American Still Life began with an aesthetic impulse to explore the carefully considered visual impact of both the packaging and product of highly processed, shelf stable food—specifically the paradoxical spectacularly horrific beauty; the eye-catching colors, the mass-manufactured forms of the foods, and the overarching premium placed on visual novelty as these products compete on the shelves of stores. The proliferation and price point also made it an ideal subject.

By combining multiple mounted photographic images the foods create a bountiful landscape of products that are highly artificial, filled with preservatives and just generally unhealthy. The contrast between the levity of the colors and forms and the actual physical implications of consuming quantities of those foods is of great interest to me. I am simultaneously seduced and repulsed, amazed and appalled.