External information and images are in constant competition for our attention. We are bombarded with advertisements on billboards, television, and the Internet; weather updates, mail, images of war, and stories of loss and disaster are available to us night and day. At the same time we are bombarded from within by a constant loop of hopes, dreams, and fears - creating a chaos which impacts our lives as we find ourselves forever toiling, as hero or villain of the stories we tell ourselves, in the shadow of our mortality. Thetford's work asks how we can engage in a dialogue with the chaos that will advance rather than alienate us.

Daryl Thetford uses actual photographs to create his digital compositions. His process begins with photographs focused on people, signs, trains, graffiti, urban walls, boxes, metal, maps, and other Americana ephemera. After developing the images from raw digital files, he alters a specific image to black and white and then begins a process of cut and paste using multiple images of close-ups of paint, followed by photographs of signs. Numerous other photos are added and overlapped. Often 75 or more photographs are used in this process.

Daryl Thetford's recent solo exhibitions include the Coffman Art Gallery at the University of Minnesota; the Art Museum of the University of Memphis; and The Arts Company, Nashville. Recent group exhibitions include Lincoln Center, Fort Collins; Art Scapes at the Knoxville Museum of Art; Open Concept Gallery for the SMart Multimedia Festival, Grand Rapids; and The Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga. His work is included in over 30 private, public, and corporate collections.