The Beacon’s Samantha Heathcote’s “Mona Snooki” draws web traffic
(Samantha Heathcote -- The Beacon)
By Will Lyons, Staff Writer -- lyons14@up.edu
On Feb. 1, The Beacon's own illustrator Samantha Heathcote ascended to Internet stardom by putting a modern twist on the "Mona Lisa."
Heathcote's the "Mona Snooki" caught the attention of celebrity gossip blogger Dena Ross, who featured the piece on her site.
"Dena from Wetpaint.com found me on Facebook, and sent me questions for an online interview to be featured on the site," Heathcote said. "I was really excited when I found out I was going to be featured on the ‘Jersey Shore' page."
The "Mona Snooki" began as an assignment for Heathcote's Figure Drawing II class to create a modern response to a classical piece of art.
"It kind of just spawned as my modern reaction to the Mona Lisa," Heathcote said.
The "Mona Lisa" has persevered as an iconic piece throughout history and artists have responded to it in various epochs. According to fine arts professor Mylin Rakich, that is a key aspect of art.
"Relative to art, I think it's important that past and present come together," he said.
After presenting the piece to her class, Heathcote put the "Mona Snooki" on Deviantart.com, a social media site meant exclusively for artists to show off their portfolios. It was on this site that Ross found the "Mona Snooki" and was able to contact Heathcote.
The popular celebrity gossip site coverage gave Heathcote more web taffic, but there is still one person in particular whom Heathcote would like to see the painting.
"I would absolutely die if Snooki saw this piece," Heathcote said in her Wetpaint interview.
Heathcote created the "Mona Snooki" using a digital art pad, which involves freehand drawing on a tablet connected to a computer via USB port. Working from two reference photos, one of the ‘Mona Lisa' and one of Snooki, Heathcote carefully incorporated the two into one original piece.
"The colors the pad gives you are unlike any other medium," Heathcote said. She has been creating digital art for a year, and it is now her preferred medium.
So far the comments posted about the "Mona Snooki" from Wetpaint, and Deviantart range from, "How dare you defile the ‘Mona Lisa!'" to "That is the best picture I've seen all day!"
Heathcote takes the critical comments with a grain of salt.
"Why do you get angry about someone you don't even know?" Heathcote said. "It's supposed to be funny."
Opinion around campus has been varied as well.
Freshman Katherine Belusco said of the piece, "It's taking a classical piece and making it trashy."
"Jersey Shore" enthusiast Jane Schumacher, a freshman, follows Heathcote's line of thinking.
"This piece makes me laugh because Snooki is the opposite of fine culture. The stark contrast between Snooki and the Mona Lisa is hilarious," Schumacher said.
However you feel about the "Mona Snooki," it does speak across the ages.
"Snooki and her reputation sort of blasphemize the Mona Lisa, but we don't really know who The Mona Lisa was either so who are we to judge?" Rakich said.
(The Beacon)
