Trompe-l’œil collage is a type of painting I have been exploring in my work for several years. The artists of the Nouveau Réalisme movement in France are dear to my heart and were among the first artistic experiences I had in my adolescence. There is a critique of the emergence of consumer society that I find less prevalent among their American counterparts. I am interested in the chance aspect of Villeglé’s lacerated posters for their advertising archaeology. Obviously, in a composition painted in the studio, there isn’t much chance involved; it serves a carefully chosen composition. Trompe-l’œil collage also allows me to simply materialize my usual working process. It often involves a long process of digital collage before I move on to painting. I feel that here, one can sense my sources in a simple and almost raw way. For example, in this painting, I took photos of food posted on Instagram (food porn) and assembled them with photos of 1950s kitchens for a still-life composition. I used an Instagram photo of a boy in a pool again, then added a quote from Edward Bernays (inventor of propaganda in the USA and nephew of Freud): “Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.”