Wayne Thiebaud’s Pie Counter needs a warning for diabetics to look away, cause just looking at this painting is gonna make ‘em reach for that insulin!

Made only a year apart from Andy Warhol’s soup cans may make you think that Wayne Thiebaud might’ve been part and parcel of the Pop Art movement that took over America in the '60s. That and everything about the mundane choice of subject, the flat, simple way in which it’s painted, etcetera, etcetera. But Thiebaud’s reasons for painting slices of pie were much sweeter than Andy Warhol’s ideals. The pie he paints harkens to nostalgic, warm and fuzzy ideas of good ol’ Mom and apple pie, the slapstick humor associated with pie-throwing contests and Charlie Chaplin getting a face full of Lemon Meringue. Heck, everything as American as apple pie is what these slices stand for (and make you drool for…) Thiebaud’s own statement about pie pretty much wraps it up: “One makes a pie out of ordinary stuff, like raisins, squash or apples and gift wraps it, in a sense with a crust. It’s very magical, very special.” Kind of like America itself…

There’s a lot to be said about pie, but I think one of my most favorite sentiments about pie is Wilmer Valderama’s summation of his relationship with Mandy Moore: “The sex with Mandy was good, but it wasn’t like warm apple pie.” I believe I started off talking about Wayne Thiebaud and pie…somehow it became about Mandy Moore and sex. My work here is done. Bye-bye, Miss American Pie!