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Karen Connell

Postcards, billboards and magazines instill in us a desire to be physically and emotionally transported to “a better place”. We see digitally enhanced, perfectly-lit and styled homes, gardens and people. These commercial images are merely representations, completely unattainable. These constructions are meant to instill longing in the viewer.

I, too, create such non-places: images that appear real, but are, in fact, simulations. I construct images of locales, persons and lifestyles. My work is meant to isolate and emphasize the desire for the other, which is, in the end, just a creation. The viewer is left to consider this cycle of desire and dissatisfaction.

We peruse decorating and travel magazines, read adventure travel stories and scan billboards. These things instill in us a desire to have and/or be somewhere else, someone else, but some place where all our wants may be fulfilled.