For the last five years, I have worked on a series titled Counterfeit in which I selected key artwork by famous 20th century artists, such as Fountain, by Marcel Duchamp, Three Flags, by Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol's Marilyn, and re-made those "signature" pieces out of sewn US currency. Counterfeit referred to my plagiarism of these masterpieces as well as the conditional nature of the value of art and money.

Because of my continuing interest in how art is often perceived and valued in our society, I have recently begun to mine porn websites for explicit images where artwork is used as the backdrop. I have finally succumbed to the suggestive sideshow come-ons spammed to me daily ("Fucktastic Gushing Facials!!" "See Teen Anal Sluts take it all!" "Hairy, Hottie, Horny Housewives!!") and have created pixilated, large-scale ink jet prints from small, digitally degraded jpegs. I use these images with no other manipulation than to crop them to call attention to the background artwork and minimize the sexual acts. This reversal of priorities is often funny as the original photos are taken in hotel rooms and other sites where the artwork is a utilitarian object, an absurd afterthought. In these prints, the sex is deleted and the bodies are incidental, intruding little upon our view of the art.

Pictured: Andy and Co. 2003, digital ink jet print 48" x 30"