Artist Anne Karsten has a keen eye for editing.

"I want to get the idea across, but I also want to take out information that doesn't need to be there," she said. "And I want to add information that will very subtly boost the point or change the mental image."

Karsten will exhibit her works at South Shore Arts' Substation No. 9 in Hammond through June 7. She is a lifelong Midwesterner who currently resides in Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood. Karsten received a master's degree in art from Pennsylvania State University and also studied abroad at the University of Nottingham in England.

Over the course of the last two decades plus, Karsten has exhibited her works everywhere from Minnesota to Massachusetts to England. She has also made a name for herself locally, receiving an award of distinction in South Shore Arts' Salon Show in 2006.

Karsten's pieces on display at Substation No. 9 are part of an ongoing series that she started eight years ago. A reaction to the large installation works that she saw as being prominent at that time, Karsten paintings at the Hammond gallery are postcard-sized works.

For her exhibit, she offers 70 pieces inspired by images of items for sale on eBay. By her estimation, she has created hundreds of pieces over the last eight years for her current series.

"I'm using this mental picture (of eBay items) to explore the ways in which people from consumer driven economies create meaning for themselves through their purchases and possessions," she said. "Sometimes this meaning is funny and sometimes it can be more sinister. Sometimes it's also more poetic."

While Karsten has received plenty of praise from viewers about her ongoing series, her biggest compliments, she says, are from those who find the devil in her details.

"There have been paintings that a lot of people liked," she said, "but there are other paintings that one person would find that one particular thing about it and say 'Oh. I love that. I know exactly what that's about.' And I really love it when that happens."

"It's very humorous, I think," said South Shore Arts gallery manager Mary McClelland of Karsten's exhibit. "The imagery is just fantastic and (the paintings) are very intelligent. Instead of a play on words, they're a play on imagery."