Wow, I just heard the news that Alton Kelley died on June 1, 2008, coincidentally the day after I mentioned him in my last post. He was 67 years old.
Alton Kelley was well known among Deadheads as the creator of unique artwork for album covers, posters and playbills. Often collaborating with Stanley Mouse, the pair were known not only for their work for the Grateful Dead, but they also did work for The Steve Miller Band, Wings, Journey, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, the list goes on and on.
In an interview last year for the San Francisco Chronicle, Alton said, "So much of the things are done by computer, I don't know really where to place that. Most of the things I've seen done, the entire things are done on computer and what you end up with is a disc. I'd rather have a painting on my wall than a disc".
He did a lot of really cool collages, which of course I personally find of interest. I especially like this one featuring Janis Joplin.
1 comment:
Tiffany
I was a good friend of Kelly's from 1964 to about 1973 in S.F
I have been doing some looking around for my old friend George Conger we both met Kelly at same time in the communal Victorian we lived in on Pine St SF.
Did you know Kelly personally ?
Below is some Kelly info.
I send you more about him later if you like.
Results for Alton Kelley > Poster Art > Proof
a web page with 113 of Kelly's art and posters
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/thumb/MOG670717-B-PF.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/ar/alton-kelley/9339/fc/poster-art/CA/r32p1s1/fp/proof/PF.html&usg=__7uhbXv9CPcxnSBYLzm0YX4rK0i8=&h=120&w=95&sz=20&hl=en&start=41&um=1&tbnid=a3hPCoZnaNfLwM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=70&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcollage%2Bartist%2BAlton%2BKelly%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl %3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
Born in Houlton, Maine, Alton Kelley had an early childhood fascination with anything mechanical and came to love cars, motorcycles and hot rods. He studied industrial design in college, but quit school and moved West in 1964. As one of several hippi...more
Born in Houlton, Maine, Alton Kelley had an early childhood fascination with anything mechanical and came to love cars, motorcycles and hot rods. He studied industrial design in college, but quit school and moved West in 1964. As one of several hippies inhabiting a Victorian house in the Haight-Ashbury district, (" globaloro" Oro says he probable never lived in the Haight district as far as I know,Could have after 1972, he mostly lived in the Fillmore district where some of his friends live as well as I.) he became a founding member of the Family Dog, a collective of activist, enterprising hippies who eventually staged events at the Avalon Ballroom. Despite minimal drafting and art experience, Kelley handled the promotion for the events of the Family Dog, drawing posters and handbills. He soon met up with Stanley Mouse, and their association nurtured Kelley's success as an artist. Kelley had a natural talent for collage and a keen eye for culling and combining imagery and styles from diverse sources. Teamed with Mouse's drafting skill, collaborations became increasingly sophisticated, yet irreverent. Kelley also occasionally teamed with Rick Griffin, claiming that a positive sense of rivalry among the poster artists was an incentive rather than a competition. Kelley always worked by hand, producing posters and other print graphics for a wide array of entertainment-oriented clients. With Mouse, he published their biography, Mouse and Kelley, in 1979.
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