Corina Marie at ArtWorkSF!

By Corina Marie Howell

6 Apr 2008

For years Corina Marie Howell subjugated her instinctual morality for the alluring glamour of Hollywood as a magazine editor for a national lifestyle publication. Being fabulous, however, had its price. Working behind the scenes booking, producing, and shooting celebrity fashion shoots introduced Corina to an environment of maniacal publicists, verbal abuse, and overuse of Photoshop's "liquify" feature. After too many long days on set with vitamin-deficient and Blackberry-obsessed people, her priorities changed and her sense of normalcy became distorted. Corina eventually realized that she'd been bitchy and hungry for far too long and quit her career. She rehabbed to the Bay went through detox, and began working out her issues through art.

Corina's work exemplifies the chaos that occurs when the strong moral values we're raised with butt up against the instant-gratification allure of celebrity and commercialism. Her work is a personal examination of this world that impacted her life so greatly. In a world where the media carries so many of our messages, we con only hope to fight back using those same tools.

In a new exhibit at ArtWorkSF Corina explores these themes as part of a group show, MetaPop.

"The catch-all phrase that, by definition, encompasses the aspects of modern life that are known to the majority of individuals within a society, Pop Culture, identifies and defines the ideas, persons and objects of modern iconography. Meta Pop reflects these icons of modern society back on us to reveal contemporary attitudes, priorities and social mores as seen through the objects and images that define mass culture."

Show Dates: March 18 to April 26, 2008

Venue: ARTworkSF Gallery, 49 Geary St. Suite 234, SF