Twinkie artist’s work features ‘ultimate food icon’

Artist Nancy Peppin has featured Twinkies in hundreds of pieces of quirky, satirical artwork because of an obsession with what she calls the “ultimate American food icon.” The Reno artist says she was first influenced to focus on Twinkies in 1975 by Andy Warhol, who demonstrated that even a Campbell’s soup can could be an object of art.

He showed you a new way of looking at a familiar object. That’s what I’m doing with Twinkies. I’m having people look at Twinkies in a brand new way and in an entertaining way.

Her works include her “Twinkies in history series,” which portrays how scientists such as John James Audubon, Charles Darwin and Leonardo da Vinci would have sketched and written about Twinkies in journals or books.