Publication Date

Fall 2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art and Art History

Advisor

Dore Bowen

Keywords

camille rose garcia, lowbrow, myth, pop surrealism

Subject Areas

Art History; Art Criticism

Abstract

Camille Rose Garcia is part of a contemporary underground art movement known as Pop Surrealism. An apparent dream-like and unexpected nature borrows from the oeuvre of Surrealism, while an allusion to the familiar and popular denotes similarities to the comic culture of the 1930s and Pop Art of the 1960s. Garcia's paintings are laced with the personal remnants of childhood memories that recall frequent trips to Disneyland and visits to her grandparent's cabin tucked away in the redwood forests of Northern California. Her artwork, a haunting recipe of sweet and sour, beautiful and grotesque, ominous and nostalgic, travels through Los Angeles's counterculture to paint the story of a machine-driven, violence-ridden, pill-popping society that has seemingly turned its back on the good, the human, and the existential.

The twentieth century was marked by an invasion of tract homes, multi-national corporations, rising government intervention into everyday life, mass production, and an unending stream of consumer goods. Popular products and age old stories were hollowed out and embedded with myths to help increase sales. Therefore, it is not surprising that postmodern thinkers proclaimed the demise of the human subject. The twenty-first century must now try to makes sense of this phenomenon. Adopting the definition of myth presented by Roland Barthes in his essay Myth Today, this thesis posits that through its appropriation of Disney imagery and use of narrative motifs from classic fairy tales, the art of Camille Rose Garcia forces the viewer to compare, interpret, and choose.

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