Chapter 9: Will Cotton's Cover Art by Prof.PurplePants In California Gurls, Katy Perry collaborates with acclaimed, New York based artist, Will Cotton. As a realist painter, Cotton typically draws on the lush scenery and sensual pastels found in the work of French Rococo artists like Fragonard and Watteau, exaggerating the escapism and eroticism of the fête galante by placing his (usually solitary, female) subjects in Candyland pastorals, complete with taffy forests, cotton candy clouds and mountains of melting ice cream. Additionally, Cotton incorporates elements of pinup portraits, with many of his pieces featuring reclining, naked women. While his work is absolutely breathtaking, the cavity-inducing sugar and nude, bacchante-recalling figures that permeate his paintings inspire reflection upon deeper themes of gluttony, greed and lust. Basically, the dude’s a baller. So how did a simple pop star rope one of the best contemporary painters into not only acting as the art director for the California Gurls music video but also painting the cover for Teenage Dream? According to ArtInfo.com, she just asked and, luckily for her, Cotton is a big fan (err…gay? C’mon, what straight guy bakes sweets all day, paints, and has a bunch of naked women willing to lie around his studio for hours on end?). Cotton’s work is often considered quite controversial, with some viewers criticizing his objectification of women by placing them naked as part of a landscape that is blatantly meant to incite a desire to consume. These critics are absolutely correct, Cotton does do this, but I think that they completely miss the point of his work. By drawing on elements of popular culture (Candyland and the PinUp) and heightening the fantasticality of it all, Cotton makes an interesting comment on the shaping of societal viewpoints. All of the images in Cotton’s work are recognizable and familiar as prevalent forces in western visual culture. The fact that these images can incite disgust in some viewers points to a subversive phenomenon, not in Cotton’s work, but in the structure of western society and how we view women and femininity. So what does this collaboration have to say about Miss Perry? As MissBleecker has shown throughout the rest of this retrospective, Perry has quite an affinity for the ironic and satirical. Honestly, Cotton’s contribution in the California Gurls music video is close to perfect. Scenery from his archive was put on the green screen used for the video to literally place Perry into his world, (he also built the Candyfornia game board used by Snoop Dogg.) The imagery is incredible and the fun-slash-beautiful-yet-ironic nature of Cotton’s work vibes seamlessly with the satirical theme of the song and video. Additionally, by having Cotton paint the cover for the album, Katy is restating what she has always said which is basically that her work is funny and if you want to be in on the joke, you can’t take her too seriously. Thank you Prof.PurplePants, now onto the conclusion!