Monopoly Money Makeover

Let’s talk about money—the glorified paper that controls our lives, yet serves no deeper purpose beyond keeping us tethered to this dusty rock of a planet. Money is a tool, they say. Sure. It’s also the most powerful leash humanity has ever slipped around its neck.

I’ve been busy giving this so-called tool a makeover, though. Welcome to Noteworthy, a mixed media collage collection where inflated banknotes—currencies so devalued they might as well be Monopoly money—find new life as art. These scraps of dead currency are paired with old magazine cuttings, discarded junk, and whatever other scraps I’ve got lying around. Together, they rise from the ashes of irrelevance into something beautiful—or at least something more valuable than what they were.

*Artworks from the Noteworthy collection*

A Little Inflation Story

If you want to understand how this financial tragedy began, let me take you back to 1971. Nixon sat in the Oval Office and decided the dollar didn’t need to be tied to gold anymore. Up until that moment, every U.S. dollar was backed by actual gold reserves. But the Vietnam War, among other American excesses, had drained those reserves dry. Nixon’s solution? Cut the cord. Let the dollar float free.

This little move, known as the "Nixon Shock," birthed a whole new financial order where the U.S. dollar became the world’s reserve currency. Now, the dollar wasn’t just America’s problem; it was everybody’s problem. If the dollar sneezed, the world’s economy caught the flu. And when America decided to print dollars like toilet paper, other currencies started inflating right alongside it.

For countries without the luxury of printing the world's reserve currency? Things went south fast. Venezuelan bolívars, Zimbabwean dollars, Turkish lira—they all tanked under the weight of inflation. These currencies are what I work with in Noteworthy. Once worth fortunes, they now line the streets like fallen leaves.

*US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast, February 25, 1972*

Old Money, New Satire

This absurd dance of money’s rise and fall is perfectly captured by a project I love called OLD MONEY. If you haven’t heard of it, imagine a brutal, darkly hilarious satire of the financial systems that dictate our lives. OLD MONEY reminds us just how ridiculous it all is: the corruption, the greed, the endless printing of paper promises. My work shares that spirit—cutting through the façade to show money for what it really is.

*2Bill1068 from the Old Money art project*

Why I Do This

Money, at its best, is shallow. At its worst? It’s a weapon. It drives greed, greed drives destruction, and we all suffer for it. Yet we need it to live. It’s the grand paradox of our existence: we hate it, but we can’t escape it.

I see money as nothing more than a middleman in our lives, a tool for trading one pile of junk for another. That’s why I treat these banknotes the same as the scraps of paper and magazines I layer into my collages. In the end, they’re all just things—materials that I can twist into something meaningful.

And maybe that’s the point. I believe in something bigger than money. Call it ascension, spirituality, meaning—whatever fits. But until humanity can let go of its obsession with paper and numbers, I’ll keep turning these worthless notes into art. Because if I’ve learned anything, it’s this: you can’t take money with you, but you can leave a beautiful mess behind.

The Dollar Rules Us All

Here’s the kicker. Even if you live halfway across the globe, the U.S. dollar is your silent overlord. Its dominance in global trade and finance ensures that when it inflates, everything else inflates too. Other currencies get sucked into the same whirlpool, dragged down by the weight of the almighty dollar. It’s a rigged game, and we’re all unwilling participants.

But here’s my solution: fight back with art. Use the junk they created to tell a different story. In my case, that means taking these currencies and gluing them into the chaos of my collages. It’s my way of saying, “Screw your system, but thanks for the materials.”

A Noteworthy Conclusion

So, here’s to worthless money made priceless. Here’s to finding meaning in the scraps left behind by a world obsessed with the shallowest of pursuits. Noteworthy is my middle finger to inflation, to greed, and to the idea that money defines worth. Because when it’s all said and done, the only thing money truly gets you is more junk. But junk, at least, can be beautiful.

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