The portrait once was the domain of the rich, a way to preserve and represent their families. With the arrival of the camera, the art of the painted portrait as a means of preservation has all but died out. However, the portrait is very much alive in the world of advertisement. We see models every day in magazines and news papers. The same faces again and again, selling different products. Over time these faces become surrogate family members. As they are everywhere, they have become disposable commodities, glanced at and forgotten in an instant.
By paining these models (or dummies; for they are in fact nothing more than human coat hangers selling goods), I take them back to their original medium, and in the process I give them a longer shelf live than the season they were intended for. They become proper surrogate family members for modern people.
