Artist’s Statement
In a field dominated by men, it was unusual for a woman to be painting covers for pulp magazines in the 1940s. As a free-lance artist, I often traveled New York subways carrying wet canvases to Popular Publications. Starting in my teens, ideas for romantic scenes came easily as the influence of Hollywood’s “boy meets girl” movies was significant. It was also during the time of WWII when uniformed men provided a valiant and romantic presence.
Noteworthy is the fact that pulp artists were required to come up with ideas for the magazine covers which reflected the general flavor of the stories within. Moving on to painting covers for mystery and detective magazines involved a radical conceptual switch. It was a surprise when I came up with gruesome ideas and concluded that, within the human psyche, there is a shadow side of which we are often unaware. I am grateful that my work struck a balance which uncovered the dark side within along with the light side depicting the joys of romance.
– Gloria Stoll Karn
