“This is All I Can Afford.”

While scrolling through my endless Instagram feed, I am always drawn to brightly colored, opulent things like, beautiful couture garments, expensive hand bags and those infamous red bottomed shoes. The pages that boast these lux items usually have thousands, if not millions, of followers pining over the same items I find myself dreaming about owning in my vision of a perfect world. When my mind comes back to earth, I immediately sink back into the realization that these items are just material things. The grossly overpriced and often ridiculously lavish items, leave most of us scratching our heads to try and justify as to why a certain shoe, dress or purse comes with such a hefty price tag. The explanation is simple, by owning such treasures it boasts of a fantastical financial status complimenting a dreamy fairy-tale lifestyle, that sometimes we just can’t help but imagine for ourselves. Dreaming costs less than a $40,000 handbag doesn’t it?

Within these thoughts, the series, “This is All I Can Afford,” was conceived. Each painting depicts modern opulence and is a visual commentary on a specific type of consumerism. Most people cannot identify with owning such expensive material goods but all social classes can identify with art. In many cases, the artwork will outlive the items contained within its brush strokes.