A new life manual has been written by American advertising and pop culture, filled with pages of violence, sex and profanity. Our youth fight battles they are ill-equipped to face in this toxic environment we have created. Society constantly imposes its standards on everyone and keeps an ever watchful eye on us, regardless of age. 

 

In this series of paintings entitled "Playthings", I use battered and broken vintage toys that possess humanistic qualities as wholesome symbols of youthful innocence. Even the Cupie doll, given to a child as an object of comfort, is eerie and slightly ominous at second glance.