Alia Penner grew up in flower-child village Topango Canyon to become flower child part deux (but the millennial Los Angeles fashionista version). Her paintings, illustrations, and designs are a vintage, dreamlike rampage of color and pattern with a Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club aesthetic.
Penner's art is stylish and retro and slathered in pop culture references. For instance, the three illustrations below: (1) "Tori Burch Muses," which is like a Renaissance Madonna painting, but with the crucifix swapped with a fashion logo; (2) "Father John Misty," which is a cuh-ray-zee shroom trip (apt, considering the Misty himself recently shroomed his way down the coast and ended up in a self-proclaimed "spider shack" in Laurel Canyon ; (3) and this illustration for Marie Claire of Zooey Deschanel, which is basically a 2D gold Byzantine icon complete with halo (but with extra stars).
Anyhow, I love her gregarious mashups of color, eras (Byzantine + 2K14), high and lowe brau themes, etcetera. Her art is fantastically fun to look at and I want to be her friend. Don't you?
Check out more of her stuff on her website, aliapenner.com.
