Most people may not think what Rosa Parks did was very funny, but one Penn State graduate art student turned the famous image of her seated on a bus into a pun.

Salvatore Schiciano (graduate-arts) recreated the photograph in a small oil painting but added a cartoon cloud above Parks' head with a picture of a gas pump in it. The caption for the picture says, "Gas Prices are to Blame!"

The piece is just one of 50 paintings Schiciano has at his first solo exhibition called 50 Iconic Puns, which opened last Friday at Gallery XIV in Boston, Mass.

The paintings satirize famous people such as Emily Dickinson and Alfred Hitchcock. The painting of Dickinson, who was known to be a social recluse, shows what her Facebook profile picture would look like, with the caption "Social Butterfly."

Erica Harney (graduate-arts), who reviewed the exhibition for a graduate critical theory class, said the puns were not meant to be malicious but light-hearted.

"If you ever see a comedian roasting someone, it's like that," she said. "He made a little tongue-in-cheek poke at them."

Schiciano said the puns were a series he started out of the blue. Will Kerr, the Gallery XIV director and curator for the exhibit, said he approached Schiciano about doing an exhibit because he likes Schiciano's work as well as his style, which Kerr finds exciting.

"I wasn't expecting this in the middle of my thesis," Schiciano said about having the exhibition at this busy time.

Even with the workload, the exhibition has been going well, he said -- he sold two of the puns before the doors had even opened.

Kerr said the feedback has been good so far.

"It's always nice to see the public respond positively to artwork," he said. "That's not always the case."

Schiciano said the university recommends Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students exhibit their work professionally.

However, he acknowledged that not everyone has the time.

"It was fortuitous for him to have a solo exhibition outside of school at this point in his career," Harney said.

The exhibition runs until the tentative date of Nov.19, but Schiciano hopes to show five to seven new works at a reception on Nov. 13th.