These paintings are part of a series called Pronk. Pronk is an old Dutch word that means sumptuous or ostentatious, displaying one's best. Pronk still lifes (pronkstilleven) were products of the latter half of the seventeenth century, still lifes that reveled in luxury, overload, and decoration. It was a "golden era" in which Europeans plundered the world for luxury goods, and then made paintings of them. In my series I look back at certain Dutch artists from this time period and various conventions of Dutch painting and try to repackage this history in ways that point more specifically to contemporary life.