Laurie Pettine is a fine artist/illustrator living in Mendham NJ. She graduated with a BFA in Illustration from Parsons School of Design/New School – honing the skill of complimenting the written word and enhancing the experience of the reader when approaching a given narrative. After years in advertising, publishing, music management, political organizing, and parenting, Ms. Pettine has been working exclusively on fine arts for the past decade. Her work is primarily mixed media, three-dimensional & appliance-sized pieces. She shares a kinship with the pop-surrealist/visionary art style of work; she is partial to Fringe/Folk/Outside Art, the Chicago Imagists, and LA Underground Alternative Pop Surrealists. Her work has been described as “kitschy” – a term she fully embraces. Ms. Pettine’s themes are playful and childlike; dreamscape, yet ominous and strangely familiar. She is not averse to the creepier, darker stories. She draws inspiration from the Fortean side of reality: feminist Jungian readings of fairy tales, urban legends, tall tales, and world mythologies. Ms. Pettine’s company, Chaotic Attractors, is her latest contribution to pop culture – creating art toys and other related merchandise that echo her alternative art interests.