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Gay Pulp Fiction: My Campy "Bareback on the Range" Valentine

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Darlings, the drama has finally arrived.

For my latest Valentine’s Day creation, I wanted to lean all the way into pulp-fiction camp. I decided to blend the opulent, moody lighting of a classical Rococo painting with the shameless, sweaty melodrama of vintage gay pulp fiction illustration. The result is pure, unadulterated camp, and I am obsessed with it. I hope you will be too.

Behold our "suffering" hero, draped across luxurious red satin sheets, a martini catching the candlelight nearby. He’s got the back of his hand to his forehead in the throes of absolute agony. Is it true lovesickness? Or just a flair for the theatrical?

But the real punchline of this piece is the mischievous Cupid hovering above. You’ll notice he isn’t looking at the man he’s supposed to be shooting with an arrow. Oh no, Cupid’s eyes are glued to the true source of desire sitting on the bed: that trashy paperback cowboy romance novel, Bareback on the Range.

It’s cheeky, it’s over-the-top, and it captures that perfect intersection of high art and low culture that I love so much. It's the perfect anti-Valentine for anyone who prefers their romance with a side of knowing humor and a cowboy hat. The work is available at my store on Redbubble: KornKob Art - Gay Valentine's Day Greeting Card


A vertical vintage-style painting. A muscular man lies on a bed with red satin sheets, hand on his forehead in distress. A martini glass sits on the nightstand. On the bed is a book titled "Bareback on the Range" featuring a cowboy. Above, Cupid floats with a bow and arrow, looking mischievously at the cowboy book.
Bareback on the Range Valentine

Let me know what you think of this artwork by leaving a comment at Bareback on the Range Campy Art 
















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Do Not Disconnect - The Real Digital Divide

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The fly in the ointment, Opito Bay, around 2007. This post was originally published in November, 2007. Almost two decades on, the photograph and the argument both feel — if anything — more relevant than they did then. I have updated this post lightly in May, 2026, some 19 years later! The Photograph I was on holiday in Opito Bay on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, sitting on the couch in the place we were staying at. A friend's iPod was resting on the coffee table, on top of a copy of The Economist from March 2005, whose cover story happened to be titled "The Real Digital Divide." A fly landed on the iPod's click wheel and stayed there. I reached for my camera, took the shot, and edited it later in Photoshop to give it the grungy, oversaturated look you see above. The fly on the iPod along with "The Real Digital Divide" struck me — immediately, and with a kind of emb...
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Samoan Youth

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This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year. Samoan Youth Canon EOS 20D 1/30sec at f/20 ISO 200 Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
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Anza-Borrego Wildflowers

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Anza Borrego Desert State Park California Wildflowers This cluster of wildflowers is typical of the flowers in Plum Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert this spring. Because of the dry and harsh environment, most of the flowers are tiny like the three in this photo. But what they lack in size, they make up for in color. It's pretty difficult to try and identify all these flowers, but I'm pretty sure the white one is Desert Pincushion. Help out if you can. I've been using the CalFlora.org website to try and identify the flowers in this series.
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