Camille Rose Garcia, born in 1970, is a contemporary artist from Los Angeles, California. Her father was an activist film producer, and her mother was a muralist. When she was young, her parents divorced. Her mother raised her and her sister in a town outside of Disneyland, which would become a prominent influence in her artwork. She grew up in a very accepting, artistic household.
She became an apprentice at the age of fourteen and began painting murals with her mother, who taught her about painting. She has a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of California at Davis.
Her artwork, which has been described as “wasteland fairy tales,” was inspired largely by Disneyland and trips to her grandparents’ cabin in northern California. She draws inspiration from a wide range of things, including Walt Disney, science fiction writers, and punk bands like the Dead Kennedys and the Clash. Her work, although colorful and somewhat twisted, usually conveys a deeper meaning. She incorporates the failures and violence of capitalist societies into her artwork, along with pop culture references and satire.
Garcia depicts the characters she illustrates as disturbed creatures. This allows her to give a more adult theme to childish fairy tales. Ever since she was a little girl, she had always been fascinated by magic. Naturally, her illustrations include princesses, villains, magic, poison, potions, talking animals, and castles.
Everyone can recognize the familiar characters from childhood stories, but Garcia seems to recreate them into something twisted, yet whimsical. She transforms something as innocent as a childhood fairy tale into something much darker and serious. Displayed in her fairy tale illustrations are shocking and realistic themes, such as self-harm, drug abuse, racism, feminism, and eating disorders. Garcia chooses not to glamorize the harsh brutality of these subjects, but instead depicts them truthfully, however ugly and brooding they might be. Unlike their Disney counterparts, her characters take on real problems we face today in society. They have a sense of frustration and tragedy, which is quite the opposite of the constantly cheerful Disney characters. Garcia’s illustrations create awareness.
“The contrast between trees and concrete, happiness and depression, rich and poor, and also the feeling of being disenfranchised has always resonated with me. The work I do tries to bring to light how humans try to control and combat nature.”
-Camille Rose Garcia
Camille lived in a commune with musicians and drug addicts. During this time, she herself experimented with various drugs and alcohol. She started designing posters for local punk bands at the time. Recently, Camille was asked to create a poster for one of her favorite bands, Death Cab for Cutie. 
Garcia’s creepy characters appeared in posters for her own punk band. Six years of Art School left Camille feeling bitter and tired of academics, so she started an all girl punk band called The Real Minks while working at a cafe. She didn’t make any art for two years.
Today, however, Camille Rose Garcia’s art is insanely popular. Some of her most popular illustrations are from Alice in Wonderland and Snow White.
Alice in Wonderland is one of her favorite fairy tales. Garcia even claims to own three different copies of the book itself. In her artwork, Alice isn’t the same character from Disney. Instead, Alice is illustrated in a gothic style, drinking bottles of alcohol and consuming strange things. Garcia chose to go a different route and actually made Alice’s trip in Wonderland a long trip on drugs and alcohol. The underlying hints of substance abuse seemed to shock a lot of people.
Garcia’s Snow White is illustrated with the theme of the modern perception of female beauty. Throughout the illustrations, Snow White is seen struggling with the pressure from others and aspiring to be beautiful and thin. These works seem to incorporate the difficulty a woman experiences when she is expected to be a certain way and eating disorders. 
Garcia’s artwork, dark and surreal, seems to often be left to interpretation by the viewer. The beautiful yet creepy illustrations could easily be seen as tragic and depressing if it weren’t for her vibrant color schemes. Stripes, swirls, glitter, neons, and dripping blacks make her dreamy and disturbing illustrations come to life.
Her illustrations are usually paintings done on wood or paper with acrylics and inks. She likes to use glitter also and add in details with a pen.
Garcia’s art is shown in exhibits around the world, including the San Jose Museum of Art in California. Her work also appears in magazines, such as Juxtapoz, Flaunt, and Rolling Stone. She has also published three different books: The Saddest Place on Earth, The Magic Bottle: A BLAB! Storybook, and Tragic Kingdom.
Camille Rose Garcia is best known for her twisted and vintage cartoon style characters in fairy tale settings. The nostalgic and grotesque combination of gothic elements alongside the psychedelic, crazy colors creates an unforgettable, amazing piece of art.
http://www.camillerosegarcia.com/
http://www.thebubble.org.uk/columns/the-female-alternative-camille-rose-garcia/2
http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4851&context=etd_theses
by Hannah Pearson
