Writing on Art & Culture
It all began with Cream Scene but There was always a passion for magazines
Art, culture, fashion, feminism, music.
While distinctly cerebral, Dia VanGunten's CNF has playful intimacy.
Her delivery is conversational and confessional - informed by pop culture, punk rock and neuroscience. (These same elements are afoot in her fiction, as ongoing themes in Pink Zombie Rose.)
Recent offerings
In Kinda Weird Magazine, there's "Contact," an ode to radio that is both jubilant and heart-wrecking. In Polyester, there's "On Snooze," an anti-ode to dick pics and the men who send them. In Cringe, the frenetic "Weight" confronts systemic sexism under the lens of celebrity scandal. In Outlander, Bewebbed is a love letter to VanGunten's varied online connections.
Dia Hearts artists
As an active member of fashion. punk and indy arts communities, Dia has current WIPS with several artistic collaborators - talents like Beppi Isbert, Katy Somerville & Julia Licht.
Since 2009, Dia has been covering the indy art scene & interviewing artists like Michael Campbell, Sue Zola and Ferg Cooper.
Mushroom Art by Michael Campbell
Articles & Interviews
Cartoon Archetypes
Miss Piggy knows she’s bacon, so she can’t figure out why Kermit is always playing games..
Weight
People play the game of Us versus Them, and that “us” feeling gets us right in the reward center. Our brains bleep and bloop and spit rainbow stars. We receive a blinking trophy when we allow ourselves to look down on someone.
Getting Fungal With Michael Campbell
Michael Campbell speaks to the big stuff – life and death, art, philosophy, human evolution and of course, mushrooms.
Contact
Radio is our reaching hand, extending into the galaxy. We offer diplomatic gifts to distant planets; disco and fugue jazz and Richard Marx, a cheeky sneak of propaganda.
Twin Binge
I’m an evil twin—greedy, jealous, stark-raving mad, and cold-blooded homicidal. I mean, maybe. Vanishing Twin Syndrome is not uncommon. In 20% of multiple pregnancies, twins can’t agree on the allocation of resources.
Sisters with computers
Not far from Lake Erie, like a suburb of Detroit, there’s Toledo; a city so alluring that Jamie Farr was willing to crossdress if it meant the military might ship him home. Or so he claimed. Toledo was just an excuse for Klinger to indulge a love of silky nighties. I got that much but I couldn’t grasp how a soldier longs for home.