his covers on the Saturday Evening Post and wished i could be in the picture. this was the fabled all-american homeland i wished i lived in instead of Queens, where i grew up. when i first came to visit stockbridge, back in the ‘70s, the leaves were in their richest red autumn hues, swirling around the streets like characters in one of his paintings. and it was so beautiful that i actually cried, feeling so grateful i ever got to experience such a beautiful world. now that world is my home, and i feel more a part of this land and community than i’ve ever felt anyplace else my whole long life long. so if there are other artists out there with a similar style or intention to continue his legacy, they certainly couldn’t be any more authentic than i am. Visiting the norman rockwell Museum i weep in the wake of his greatness. My goal is to keep the world focused on his vision. by “reinventing rockwell” i intend to revitalize interest in the original rockwell images as well as my own updated interpretations.
I wanted to ask you about your experience working for Interview magazine. My mentor magazine, by the way! Tell me about it, please. Pops: when i was studying at columbia in the seventies, andy warhol had just started interview. i went to film class with bob colaciello, an editor, and glenn o’brien who was the editor-inchief. they gave me assignments based on my articles in the school paper, the Columbia Spectator, and Essence Magazine. i was twenty when i wrote for them, profiles including, “at the deli with liza Minnelli,” upon the release of liza’s oscar-winning role in “cabaret.” during the interview i went with liza and her then boyfriend, dezi arnaz Jr. to the deli around the corner from her east side apartment. since i was with them, all the people thought i had to be famous too, with my huge afro. so i signed autographs as the guy from Mod squad, clarence williams iii. the paycheck for the interview was autographed personally by andy himself and i stared at it a long time wondering if i should just hold onto it as an investment. that check was for about $200; i could get $20,000 for it today, no doubt. but i needed the cash for food! speaking of achievements, that interview is currently in the collection of the andy warhol Museum, which i visited in pittsburgh. what an eerie feeling to be inside a huge museum about someone who was actually a part of my life! and how strange that my name and my work were in their archives! More than any other goal right now, my personal wish is to be shown at the andy warhol Museum as a visual artist, as well as a writer. I am wondering, and I know it may sound strange to you, but we don’t always find what kind of person the artist is behind their canvas. We see the art, but do we at times, wonder who the artist is that created a piece of art that is out there to be seen and thought about? Who is Pops, and who is Maurice? Pops: when i was in art school i discovered that every artist’s work resembled the artist who painted it. the big guy would use broad brush strokes and lots of paint; the sad little girl drew
Pops Peterson, “The Problem Persists” 1964-2014. Fifty years after Rockwell painted “The Problem We All Live With,” racial strife is still with us. When Ferguson erupted, the media covered the shooting, the police and the looters, but paid scant attention to the hardworking citizens who lost jobs, business owners who lost everything and the innocent children who have to grow up in a war zone.
gloomy landscapes with small insignificant dark figures, etc. so every picture is a self-portrait and i do see an image of myself in each of my paintings. each image is a different facet, a different mood, but each image is a vision that i’ve created from the love in my heart. if you see enough of them, you’ll see my every mood and belief.
In your lifetime, so far, what experiences have you encountered that may have caused an epiphany, or altering lifelong lesson? Can you let us in on at least one private learning experience you have had? Pops: when i was ten years old i was lit on fire in an accident and suffered third degree burns over a large percentage of my body. i stayed ten weeks in the hospital, suffered multiple procedures and operations, saw my friends dying in the ward. but it didn’t kill me. i feel i’ve had the guts to take big chances in my life in large part due to this early tragedy. because it didn’t kill me. what could happen that could possibly be worse than i’d already been through? and i’m still here, still forging ahead and smelling some roses, too.
I know you are also a graphic designer, those skills must have been the ladder towards creating art that is totally for yourself to be enjoyed – that is before it went public… What were the stepping stones and ground work connection between graphic designing, web designing, and now, I am throwing in your writing skills, as well. Sounds like it was a culmination of all of the above, but maybe, you were not aware that this new adventure needed these skills on board in order to create your POP art, that…really pops. Pops: it’s misleading to say i was a graphic designer, actually. after making it to hollywood as a tV and screenwriter (“homework” starring Joan collins) then losing my agents at william Morris, i struggled for years as an office temp to support my family and put my daughter through private school. so when the internet was introduced and a lucrative new industry was born, i taught myself from books to program websites. i’d never even heard of photoshop, which was then at version 3, but i got that program for my pc and taught myself enough techniques to crop
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Pops Peterson, “Queen of the Dome” 2014. I photographed Beyoncé on stage in her “I Am… World Tour,” 2009, at the Izod Center in NJ. The background is the ceiling of the Bellagio, shot in Las Vegas, 2013.
the artFul Mind FebruarY 2015 • 11