Pamela Michelle Johnson

     

       

The idea for my work came about from personal experience, however Pamela Michelle Johnson's series, "American Still Life" provided a stronger concept and inspiration towards what I want to achieve. She was born in California and went to school for engineering with a minor in art. Afterwards, she decided to fully pursue an art career and moved to Chicago. She became involved with the art community and has had her work displayed in galleries throughout the US."American Still Life" is her series commenting on the diet of the average American.

Through my work, I strive to invoke reflection on a culture focused on mass-consumption and mass-production, where the negative aspects of overindulgence are often forgotten or ignored. 

The work flaunts our culture back at us. It questions embracing a culture of complete and instant gratification while ignoring the consequences of our indulgences. The work questions many of our cultural ideals and social norms. These are the pictures of our insatiable appetites; they are the pictures of the consequences.

Overbearing scale and gluttonous quantities, juxtaposed against foods that are both tempting and comforting, examine the conflict between enjoying the highly processed, artificially flavored bounty of American life and the progression to overindulgence and gluttonous excess. The work is both gross and enticing.

I chose her work because she is a huge inspiration to this project. There are so many elements she took into account to reflect her concept (the bright colors, awkward compositions, and even the scale of the canvas). However, instead of making pieces that are desolate like hers, I may include some sort of setting to create a possible narrative in my works.