Pop culture meets the masters

March 11, 2003 11:10 AM

Highbrow meets lowbrow- Isabel Samaras uses classic paintings as a springboard to portray the secret lives of pop culture icons like the Addams Family, the cast of Gilligan's Island, Batman & Robin and Tattoo. Fun but NSFW stuff. Check out her portfolio of illustrations too.
posted by madamjujujive (11 comments total)

Very cool but should have paid attention to that NSFW warning. My boss was too polite to ask why I was looking at paintings of Uhura topless. I'm sure that sometime, somewhere, it will come back to haunt me.
posted by widdershins at 11:28 AM on March 11, 2003

Very cool! Thanks juju. I grew up with all of these shows (mostly repeats). How did I know Ginger would end up on the half-shell? These could almost be summed up as "Our subconscious watching TV."
posted by Shane at 11:29 AM on March 11, 2003

These are very odd, but very interesting. The Kirk/Spock and Batman/Robin paintings got my attention particularly because I have spent the last several months immersed in the weird but wonderful world of Tolkien Slash (for those not in the know, slash refers to a piece of art or fanfiction featuring a homosexual pairing between two characters not intended as homosexual in the original work, though in the case of Frodo and Sam there is a good deal of debate about the last point)
posted by kate_fairfax at 11:50 AM on March 11, 2003

I'm sure that sometime, somewhere, it will come back to haunt me.

When your bonus comes with tickets to the Trek Convention and a discrete dinner proposal, perhaps?
posted by jonson at 11:54 AM on March 11, 2003

She paints what we're all thinking! Love the Pirate and turtle, and Frank and Mia, but the Gilligan's Island ones definitely have the most, how do you say, psychosexual oomph.
posted by condour75 at 12:21 PM on March 11, 2003

Isabel's work is so great! One of my best friends bought Tatu from her.
posted by redshifter at 1:58 PM on March 11, 2003

What distresses me, I think, is that there's some guy somewhere painting the exact same style of pictures, but gets laughed out of the Star Trek con for daring to bring "nudie shots".
posted by Katemonkey at 4:09 PM on March 11, 2003

Morticia as Venus is my favorite, but I've always had a weird crush on the original Morticia Addams. Someday when I'm rich I'm going to have the weirdest shit on my walls.
posted by jennyb at 4:46 PM on March 11, 2003

Awesome stuff. I wonder how much her paintings cost? I could definitely see a couple of them on my wall.
posted by biscotti at 11:37 PM on March 11, 2003

Such cheek!


Great sense of humour. Loved the Morticia also, but favoured the illustrations, "Mary" for Bitch magazine is way cool.

A favourite illustrator is still Edward Gorey.
posted by alicesshoe at 11:49 PM on March 11, 2003

I dunno. I'm just not all that intrigued by this particular mixing of pop and serious culture. It was funny the first couple of times, but it's been done, and done, and done. I don't need to see yet another take on Manet's Olympia. Find a new schtick, guys.

And I hate to be snide, but I don't think she's that good a draughtsman.

sorry, madamjujujive, i usually love your posts, i just can't cotton to this particular artist.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:10 AM on March 12, 2003