The Consumer

The Consumer was not created as commentary from the outside. It came from being inside the system and recognizing how deeply it reaches into the body, the mind, and the sense of self.

This painting represents what happens when people are no longer seen as individuals but as data points. When attention is harvested. When identity is shaped by what is consumed rather than what is felt.

The figure in The Consumer is overwhelmed but normalized. Surrounded by symbols of platforms, demands, and constant input, yet expected to function as if nothing is wrong. That tension is intentional. It reflects how consumption has been disguised as participation.

What interests me most is how quietly this conditioning happens.

Corrupt systems rarely announce themselves. They embed. They polish their language. They present convenience while extracting autonomy. The Consumer exposes that exchange. Comfort traded for awareness. Access traded for agency.

The painting is unrefined on purpose. Rough edges. Visual noise. A sense of imbalance. This mirrors the unpolished reality beneath curated feeds and manufactured lifestyles. Perfection is part of the illusion. Disorder tells the truth.

The Consumer is not about blaming individuals. It is about revealing design. About how systems reward overconsumption while discouraging stillness. How distraction becomes a tool. How choice becomes limited while appearing infinite.

This work asks a simple but uncomfortable question. At what point does consumption stop serving us and start shaping us?

The absence of clarity in the piece is intentional. It reflects the mental fog created when everything demands attention at once. When silence feels unfamiliar. When rest feels undeserved.

The Consumer exists as both a warning and a mirror.

It invites the viewer to pause and recognize their own relationship to consumption. To question what they are feeding and what is feeding on them. To notice where their time, focus, and energy are truly going.

Awareness is the first form of resistance.

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Lay Simone

The Consumer painting

Pittsburgh artist

contemporary art

psychological art

visual storytelling

consumer culture

corrupt systems

digital conditioning

modern identity