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Donna Anderson Kam uses contemporary news stories as a starting point to explore pressing
social issues, especially the paradox of prosperity and sustainability. She begins by photographing
young actors as they perform the stories, then uses the resulting photographs to create collaged
studies that she reinterprets in pastels. The final drawings are finely rendered scenes in tones that
speak to hazy memories of past events. The youth of the figures alludes to everything from fragility
and peril to mischievousness and rebellion, and intimates that the issues that play out in these
scenarios will continue to face future generations. She explains, “…our consumption based economy,
our media influenced identity, and the unrealistic expectations of personal prosperity inspired by
a constant barrage of messages from the media to consume/renew/refresh, have created a mountain
of discarded goods, cultural amnesia, and the many spiritually impoverished ‘consumers’ that exist today.”

Donna Anderson Kam

donnaandersonkam.com