The medium used in Diediker’s Money Art series is whole, uncut US Currency. The visual illusion within the textured bills is a modern application of pointillism first used by the painter Georges Seurat in the mid 1800’s. 

 

 

“My Money series was conceived while looking at the pointillist paintings of Seurat,” says Diediker. “Seurat's play on optics using dots and value induced a "what if" moment. What if I could create an image using the value scale a common object? I considered many items such as boxes of tic tac's, gum wrappers, etc. Then as reached into my pocket at the Home Depot it occurred to me. What could be more common than cold hard cash? It's something that everyone uses and handles every day. But the real question was could it be used as a pointillistic medium?”

 

“Answer: Yes...but only if they were individually folded to represent various points on a value scale. After some trial an error and sore finger tips I figured out how fold an individual bill fifty different ways. Each way representing a different point on the value scale that could then be applied towards rendering an image.”