Cherry Valance —Red River Painting

Sanjo Mo studied art and design at Salisbury University where he first learned the skills and techniques of painting, pottery and sculpture. He gained a second degree from the Academy of Art in San Francisco where he studied classic art theories, digital art design and advertising. Sanjo Mo continues to work in advertising/marketing and paints regularly. I've worked in advertising and marketing for a long time and as such my works often use marketing/advertisement copy and design, dialogue, music lyrics, and pop culture as inspiration. My styles are founded in graphic collage and realism mixed with saturated pop styles to explore ideas of disconnection, alter egos, metamorphosis and how the digital world changes our perspective and persona. My works tend to have an underlining comment on how pop culture, advertising, and the power of the internet can change our perspectives and persona. My most recent series called "Influencers" I used social media "influencers" and their photos/social media posts as my inspiration. This series was designed to see how these social media mavens images would/could 'change' once removed from their original online context, the 'fame', followers, 'likes', comments and 'shares'— do these '' images lose their power once removed from the online world of instant gratification and "sharebility" ? Do these images cease to become interesting when they are no longer connected to the popularity of their online 'influencer' personality, or are they still as engaging and of interest? Do these images become something else once removed from social media? Do they tell less or more of a story?... or perhaps they become something different altogether? "I love working on commissioned pieces and would love to hear about your project!" "Feel free to send me a message if you'd like to know more about my art or just to chat."