The Roots of Grateful Dead Art: Mouse/Kelly/Griffin

You can’t talk about art inspired by the Grateful Dead without first journeying back to its roots, in August 1966, when the now infamous artist/illustration team of Alton Kelley and Stanley “Mouse” Miller had the stunning realization that they had misspelled the Grateful Dead’s name on the Avalon Ballroom poster that promoter Chet Helms (Family Dog) had hired the duo to create for a show with Sopwith Camel. The band had changed their name from “The Warlocks” so recently that the artists weren’t yet familiar with the spelling.

Mouse/Kelly poster: First Grateful Dead poster, with the band’s name misspelled. 1966.

Eager to redeem themselves, the pair was determined to design not only a striking poster for the upcoming Avalon Ballroom show— they also hoped to create a recognizable emblem or logo for the band.

As Mouse tells it, the duo headed to the San Francisco Public Library in search of inspiration, and ended up perusing a back room packed with illustrated books that could not be borrowed without professional references. As Kelley leafed through a 1913 illustrated edition of 10th century Persian poetry (quatrains) called “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” he stopped dead in his tracks, calling excitedly, “This has Grateful Dead all over it!”. The 1869 illustration, by Edmund Sullivan, was a skeleton with a rose crown, which historically has denoted the contrast of life and death, love, beauty and decay. The Skeleton and Roses, a symbol of duality, was steeped in the mythos that the Grateful Dead embraced, and is fondly known by Deadheads as Bertha.

Illustration by edmund sullivan, from 1st edition of ““The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” translated by Edward Fitzgerald, 1869.

Taking their inspiration from this stunning illustration, Kelley and Mouse produced the now iconic Avalon Ballroom poster, as well as one of the most recognizable, and certainly one of the most well-loved emblems in the music industry.

“Avalon Ballroom Skeleton and Roses,” 1966, ink on illustration board. (Stanley Mouse/Alton Kelley. “Bertha”

Rick Griffin

Fortuitous and weird coincidences are commonplace in the mysterious world of the Grateful Dead, and in 1966, 20 year-old surfer and artist, Rick Griffin and his pregnant wife Ida, moved into 715 Ashbury, across the street from (future) poster artists Stanley “Mouse” and Alton Kelley. In 1967, Griffin joined with Kelley, Mouse, Victor Moscoso and Wes Wilson, along with photographer Bob Seidemann to found Berkeley Bonaparte, a company that created and marketed psychedelic posters.

This group of artists, known as “The Big Five” of poster psychedelia, were foremost on the scene, creating virtually all of the artwork for the Bay Area psychedelic poster/albums.

Before becoming a born again Christian in the early 1970’s, and turning his focus to faith-based art, Griffin created the legendary Jimi Hendrix “Flying Eyeball” (BG-105) 1968 poster for Bill Graham, “which is probably the most sought after Griffin poster, for its iconic, psychedelic Rick Griffin imagery and color”.

The Flying Eyeball takes its inspiration from the ancient “Winged Eye” symbol, first appearing in the art of the Egyptians and Assyrians. More modern interpretations also include the possibility that it also represents the self and the personal strength that is present with spiritual awareness. With the addition of wings, one could certainly surmise that the flying eyeball suggested the expanding state of consciousness that LSD offered.

Rick Griffin’s poster for Jimi Hendrix and john mayall at the fillmore and winterland, 1968.

The Grateful Dead, great admirers of Griffin’s work, requested that he create a poster for them, which became the iconic album cover for Aoxamoxoa in 1969. Rick’s lettering, surely the most associated with 1960’s psychedelia, had its roots in his earlier work as a comic book artist for surfer mags and Zap Comix, among many others.

Rick Griffin’s poster became Album Cover for Aoxomoxia 1969

Griffin continued to create art for The Grateful Dead, and many other bands through the 1980’s before his untimely death in 1991, at the age of 47, when his Harley crashed into a van that he was attempting to pass in Petaluma, California. The last piece of art Griffin created was for The City, a San Francisco ‘zine, depicting the image of an artist kneeling at the pearly gates of heaven to meet his maker…holding his quill and inkwell.

Rick Griffin’s last creation, “heaven’s Gate”, 1991.

Dead Art Takes Off

There are countless artists (with varying degrees of expertise and talent) who continue to draw inspiration from the band, and express their love for the music and the community, ranging from fine art to photographs, as well as jewelry, textiles and wearable art. With so many artists marketing their wares on the social media platforms, there are also certainly inherent problems with this instant electronic access, including the rampant theft and impersonation of work as one’s own. Regardless, Dead fans continue to be rabid collectors of posters, pins, and wearable art.

Meet Contemporary Artist Chris O’Leary

Chris is an enigma; a part-time stand-up comedian, podcaster, and a unique and talented artist living in Saratoga Springs, New York. Chris is a contemporary Realist painter and illustrator, who has done work for the NYC Ballet and the National Museum of Dance, the World Wildlife Fund, and a thoroughbred horse rescue organization among others, but his true passion lies with the art of the Grateful Dead. Chris shares his personal history and discovery of the Dead:

The Grateful Dead was a life-changing experience for me. In some ways, maybe even a life-making experience. There was not a lot of wisdom or beauty to be found in popular culture when I was a teen, the Beatles were long gone, Dylan was born-again, and music was sliding into empty marketable pop, hairstyles and image over substance, even before MTV. Everything was getting worse; movies, TV, books, art, Lennon was murdered and here comes Ronald Reagan. AIDS was only months away. Not a great time in America for dreamers and lovers and people who think in color.
Then at an Allman Brothers show in 1980, a beautiful girl walked up to me—well, she danced up to me actually—and handed me a beat-up unlabeled cassette and danced away. It was a Dead first set from 76, and by the time the tape got to Candyman, I was a deadhead. Wherever that woman is, she's completely oblivious to how she changed the course, and the soundtrack, of my life.
I was inspired by all the artists and vendors in the parking lots, creating amazing work out of love for the band, and I joined them, trading my work for theirs. I fell in love with the super-cool imagery of Rick Griffin and Kelley & Mouse. To this day I've never seen a cooler painting than the cover of Blues For Allah.
Long story long, I ended up working for Grateful Dead Comix in the 90's, which was a dream come true for me. The comic folded when Jerry died, it really did look like everything, the whole scene, was over. We sure were wrong about that, I think I know more Deadheads that never saw Jerry than ones that did!
I've never thought of my art as a commercial resource, although I probably should have. I do art because I have to…and the reward has always been meeting new people who love art too, and making new friends. And hopefully impressing a woman and finding a girlfriend. Not so much luck with the girlfriend, :) but I'm grateful to call so many of you friends.

Chris needed a repository for his artwork, and being old school, he wasn’t equipped to create a website or online store to showcase his work. On a whim, he started a Facebook group called Art Is Dead to share his art. Before he knew it, folks started sharing his work on their own Facebook pages, in awe of his creations, and then began to submit samples of their own art on his page. Chris was bombarded by membership requests, and since its inception in 2019, membership is over 4500 members, and growing daily. Chris realized he needed a stand-alone FB page featuring his own creations, and created Chris O’Leary’s Art Is Dead.

Chris is one of the most humble, and down-to-earth artists you’ll ever meet. His mediums include straight oils, watercolors, and more recently, mixed-media pieces combining watercolor, alcohol inks, acrylic, and digital. As is often the case with artists of any genre, Chris is so absorbed in the creative process that has little leftover energy or time to promote himself, and as a result can find himself rich in admiration, but low on funds. He mentions that he is open to a fairy godparent with mad computer skills and expertise in social media to swoop down on him to help with marketing and sales. And fair maidens are welcome to apply.

Contact Chris through Chris O’Leary or Art is Dead. Below, find just a small sampling of Chris’s beautiful work.

Stay tuned for Spotlight on The Big Five psychedelic poster artist, coming soon.

Meanwhile…check out the gorgeous music and Dead-centric photographs from Jay Blakesberg and Rosie McGee.