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Art doesn’t get much more lowbrow than what Kirstin Easthope
does.
The Englewood painter has married bowling – one of the few sports where
smoking and drinking are actually common -- with the scantily clad imagery of
mid-20th century-style pin-up girl illustrations.
Painting scantily-clad women is a far cry from where her life began –
Salt Lake City, Utah. In a largely Mormon community she describes as repressive
and excruciatingly boring, Easthope found solace in an unlikely place, the local
bowling alley.
Easthope started her art career off in a straight enough fashion, going to school
for graphic design.
“I worked in the field for a few years, but it really wasn't my cup of
tea,” says Easthope,” and I wasn't theirs. So I left, got a regular
job, and kept my artwork for myself.”
Soon she found herself working in a tattoo shop. Easthope soon found that the
tattoo shop scene, like graphic design, wasn’t for her. But her painting
talents did catch the eye of some of the other artists she worked with.
“I was working in a tattoo studio and painting pin-ups on wooden boxes
on the side,” says Easthope. “The other artists would buy the boxes
from me to keep their machines in. A friend of mine had a few old bowling pins,
and asked if I would paint them for her. I loved the way they looked, and it
was an unusual format, so I stuck with it.”
For the content of her paintings, Easthope settled again on painting pin-up
girls. The medium is the perfect complement to the subject matter: The curvaceous
ladies, far removed from the popular contemporary idea of feminine beauty, are
mirrored by the pins’ hourglass shape.
“I've always loved the classic pin up art of the 40s and 50s,” says
Easthope. “Even when I was little, I loved the glamour and beauty of the
girls. And they always had the coolest outfits!”
And though painting pin-ups on bowling pins might not be the common perception
of what art is, Easthope says she’s not really concerned with creating
traditional masterpieces.
“I much prefer lowbrow and outsider art,” says Easthope. “I
feel that it lacks the pretentiousness of highbrow. Lowbrow artists usually
don't paint to get into a prestigious gallery, and please the masses. They paint
to please themselves. If you think about it, its ironic that some of the most
respected artist ‘masters,’ Van Gogh for example, were classified
as ‘outsider,’ and never made it big in their time.”
Easthope’s pin-up pins have found their place in the world of art, appealing
to a select group of retro-crazed art fans, and even some regular folks.
“The people that buy my art are mostly those in the tattoo and rockabilly
sects, although I have sold to quite a few seemingly straitlaced business types,”
says Easthope. “ My home is decorated in 1950s kitsch, and a lot of people
are into that, and the pins fit right in.”
Easthope’s pins run about $400 a piece. They are available from her Web
site at www.queenpindeluxe.com