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Growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, I became a slave to the world of popular culture. As a young girl, I was never without butterfly clips in my hair, mood polish on my nails, and I was constantly listening to the CDs of artists like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on my best friend’s boom box. Things were changing: I realized that I was no longer a little girl and that I was slowly becoming a woman. I wanted to know what all of these teen pop singers were talking about: sexuality, sensuality, and relationships. I had so many questions but nobody with experience to ask. I’ll never forget the time that I pretended I knew what I was talking about when my friend asked me, “What’s an orgasm?” She had seen it in the most recent Cosmo Girl magazine. I replied with preteen valley-girl confidence that it was, “Like, related to an organism.” Obviously, I had no idea what I was talking about, and I wouldn’t know for certain until I experienced it myself. I let these pop songs guide me in my intimate experiences as I was figuring out what seemed to be true in these songs and what seemed to be fantasy.

I knew all of the songs by heart, and I still do, but some of the lyrics took on different meanings as I became more knowledgable about life as a grown woman. If I listen back to a song that captivated me when I was young, it transports me to the same feelings that I had when I was of that age. When I compare my experiences to the words in these songs, I find conflict between being a feminist, a sexual woman, and a sexualized woman. The little girl in me still idolizes these artists as I continue to try to find a balance between the desire to achieve natural inner beauty and fight the urge to perfect myself through a glamorized, idealized appearance. Now that the 90s and 00s have come back into style, it is almost as if I am reliving it all over again. I find myself using this as an excuse to dive back into my youth as a now 30 something-year-old woman.

Taking inspiration from Pop Art and Andy Warhol, I decided to create digital images of cultural phenomena and celebrity teen pop idols. To mirror the consumerism and supply/demand model Warhol set, I repeated these images over and over to exacerbate the reality that I could never get enough of. After my digital images are ready, I print and collage them onto canvas or paper. Then, I create a background composed of lyrics to support the multiple female figures I place on top. The figures are nude, and only the most sexualized portion of the body is shown. Displaying the body cropped in this manner is meant to have both a negative and positive meaning. The song lyrics that are chosen display the conflict between the superficiality and actuality I have experienced. I then use various materials such as oil paints, alcohol markers, and colored pencils to accentuate the intense highlights and shadows of the female while preserving the midtone of the figure comprised of the digital images. I complete the figure by covering the nipples with smiley face stickers in order to juxtapose innocence and sexuality. The stickers comment on the boundaries that society places on what is appropriate and what should not be shown. Diamond Dust is used to draw attention to the dichotomy of innocence and glamour. The final result is a 90s-00s nostalgia aesthetic.

-Julia Bush, 2023

Julia Bush is a Los Angeles based contemporary artist specializing in figurative pop art. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts, (emphasis on painting and photography) and five years of teaching visual arts, she has curated multiple art shows featuring artwork by young artists. Julia organized a large collaborative art piece after the Borderline shooting and Woolsey Fire of Southern California, giving students an opportunity for expression. She is a consistent contributor to the California Lutheran University Arts Symposium and completed her Master’s Thesis and research on the Art Critique and learning. Julia has shown work in selective group exhibitions in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties such as: Poway Center for the Performing Arts, Broome Gallery, Carnegie Art Museum, Ventura County Museum, Federal Government Center of Ventura, Palm Gallery, Project Space Gallery and the CSUCI Exhibitions Gallery.