Mars Missile Pops by Shaunna Peterson

In the design class I'm taking at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, we've been asked by Professor McCambly (hi class!) to create a blog. My choice is to focus on things I find visually compelling coming from the I.E.

I'll talk about how hard starting school is when you're an old gal some other time. Meanwhile, here's my first post with a local Yucaipa artist I think is grand.

Behold the wonder of Shaunna Peterson's poppy PinUps!!

Shaunna is an Art Center, Pasadena graduate whose work is influenced by (among other things) rock and roll, car culture, MAD Magazine and Egon Schiele. Her work is part of the pop-surreal movement and is displayed in galleries as well as being used for freelance advertising assignments.

Mars Missile Pops is an acrylic on found board painting. The focal point of the pop is brought to the eye by the vibrant colors of yellow and red. That competes somewhat with the central figure wearing a red cap and red lipstick so the viewer is forced to look back and forth from the figure to the yellow orb and the pop in front of it.

The movement of the wave at the bottom of the painting, leads the eye to the pop as well as back to the word Mars.

I've gone back and forth about how I feel about Pin-Up art. While I enjoy the symbolism of a cheerful, busty woman, Shaunnah's use of intense color has a sort of circus undertone which makes me feel that she's saying more about contemporary women than first meets the eye. Her women are bright-eyed and smiley but I wonder exactly how happy they are and whether they're asking the viewer to look beyond the first impression.