Magyn Merrick is a painter and collage artist living in Memphis, Tn. She shares space with the love of her life, her dog, Grizzly, as well as her husband (who is alright, too.)

My work, like many artists' work, explores the artifice of images that have become the vernacular of our daily lives. I am consumed by the use of apps like Instagram and Pinterest and have to constantly remind myself that even the floral arrangements presented, though seemingly effortless, took hours of professional styling. They are not real life.

It is hard not to wonder why my home doesn't look a certain way; why I can't put together an outfit and stand with a devil-may-care attitude in some obscure back ally-way for god know's how many photographs; why even the plated food I make is not Instagram-worthy, rather than serving it's actual purpose of providing nourishment. Despite the many positive applications, social media has the potential to address, mostly I am anxious and sometimes angry. Sometimes, too, I laugh, because who hasn't suffered an extreme Pinterest fail? (I'm looking at you, T-Rex cake.)

The images I paint are alluring, but they are certainly not realistic. They serve to highlight the distortions of this non-reality of which we are bombarded, the all too beautiful and mesmerizing advertising of self that we have become accustomed to.