How do I love pinups and let me count the ways...

Yes, I sat myself down and asked myself why it is I blog about pinups. It’s so trivial, it’s so silly and so horny! So why then? Here are 10 fine reasons!

#10 The Detail

I’m a sucker for good craftsmanship. Most people are. As an art student you learn to appreciate abstract art and god knows I love it, but there is always a special place in my heart for that artist that can really draw convincing fingernails and get deep into the garter-clasp details.


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Tags: pinup lovers, Nostalgia, garter-clasp details, king of pinups, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Page, straightforward sexuality, sexually explicit, pinup artists, Olivia De Bernardinis, retro style, Classic Sweetness, garter belts, Women, Voluptuous, Gil Elvgren, modern Venuses, Garters and Stockings, beauty and mystic, natural beauty, Low art, pornographic, Diversity, neo-pinups

Some pinup artists are skilled, sophisticated and patient enough to add a little technical challenge to their work - the mirror.

While looking for pinup twins a month ago, I found myself eyeing another pinup art practice - the mirrored pinup. I haven't managed to find an essay about the appearance of mirrors and reflections in a painting (let me know if you got the inside story via comment or email ), but I gather it’s an interesting research subject. In pinup art a lot of the profound meaning is shallowed out to eye-candy. I’m hoping to find some insight into the mirrored pinup.

Showing Off All Assets

As I said, in most pinup art, the profound possibilities of meaning are usually shallowed down to simple efficiency. In most cases, the pinup will be either facing the viewer, or with her back to the viewer and the mirror is there to show all the pinup’s assets - front to back.

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Tags: Through the Looking Glass, pinup artists, mirrors, mirrored pinup, WWII., Nazi propaganda, Enoch Bolles, Kevin Clark, being watched, self Portrait, glamor girls, Gil Elvgren, pinup assets

Plus-size pinups are a niche within a niche. It's hard to see a potential of growth outside of the plus-size fetish community. I would like to propose otherwise, by showcasing a few plus-size pinup artists.

Searching for plus-size pinups is (as in many other pinup sub-niches) tough and yields little results. Even more discouraging was finding the following short conversation on Yahoo Answers, in the begining stages of research.

Q: Who are some of the greatest plus-size pin-up models of today?

A1: Look on myspace, and you'll find plenty. the thing is, pin-up models, plus size or otherwise, aren't really part of a booming industry outside of fetishists, Betty Page fans and tattoo conventions. Can you name a contemporary pin-up model (outside of Dita Von-Teese) at all?
Plus size pin-ups especially are a non-issue - I can't name any because there aren't any famous ones. Again, you'll find hundreds of women calling themselves plus size models on myspace - so you can check them out there, but the majority of them are not actual models.

A2:Are you talking about waist line or bust size?
Not a huge market for fat pin-ups. Pun intended.
With the advent of the internet the market for modern pin-ups has become huge, de-valued, international, and fragmented. I can't say who is the queen of today's pin-up market. 99% of pin-ups are viewed eletronically and never make it to print. Just 10 years ago it was the complete opposite.
Certainly there is no modern Betty Page of any size.

Hilda - Very Humble Beginnings

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Tags: Hilda, Plus-size Pinup, pinup artists, Duane Bryers, Booty Babe Art, Les Toil girls, Bodacious Magazine, chris Cooper, Big Bad Girls

Looked down on by scholars, pinups have always been perceived as pop- art, at best, and vulgar commercial illustrations or even pornography, at worst. I propose we take a closer look at the bare facts about pinups.

Postmodern art has given way for some strange, questionable works. From Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain”, to John Issacs' grotesque sculptures. Many people will ask in frustration: “That's art?!”

A lot of people feel the same way about pinups. Being part of the postmodern era, I believe that anything goes and that everything means something (and as such means nothing, but that's for the postmodern blog to decipher ). So I took it upon myself to analyze a pinup painting, in the most basic ways, and see if I can find out a deeper meaning to pinup art.

The Bear Facts by Gil Elvgren

This is one of my favorite pinups of all time and Elvgren is one of the most prolific pinup artists of all time. When conjuring up the image of a pinup girl, we usually imagine one of Elvgren's girls. But let us look at her with unbiased eyes:

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Tags: The Bare Facts about pinups, The Bear Facts, pinup artists, Elvgren's girls, Analyzing a work of art, postmodern art, pop-art, pinup painting, Gil Elvgren