RICK GRIFFIN HD 1080p
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- Rick Griffin was born far later than most of the illustrators I feature in these solo videos. And if he hadn't had some spectacularly bad luck he might well have still been among us.
This is a tribute - by no means intended as a thorough biography - to the man and his work, which had a profound influence on me in the late 1960s when I first went to art school. You may not be a particular admirer of his output but there's no denying its impact on contemporary visual culture.
Now this is more in my era. Rick and Roger Dean who did the Yes album art, are two of my favorites and gave me the most inspiration while in school.
Hello again, and I'm currently working my way through anew version of my video about the psychedelic graphics of the later 60s. I had to take the first version down a long time ago because I had used copyrighted music from the period. Anyway, hopefully the new one will be done in a month or so.
Thank you for this excellent tribute. I had the amazing good fortune of meeting Rick Griffin in, of all places, my own home in Bodega Bay, CA. It was sadly just two weeks before the tragic motorcycle accident, which was on Bodega Highway, in Petaluma. A mutual friend had brought him to my house on their way to a secret surfing spot, because the friend had wanted Rick to see my work that I was creating at the time. It was just a few minutes, but such an honor. I remember just being silent and afraid to speak. He was like an art god.
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation of this video. I must admit that despite about 50 years of loving and envying his work I didn't know all that much about him until I made the video. But I did know he had died in a road accident, and still think it was a waste of an immensely talented human being. At least we still have his work.
PS ...and I'm still envious!
@@petebeard I totally get it--I feel like at least half of what I've learned in life was in the process of trying to teach someone else. Yes, it's lucky for the rest of us that Rick was so prolific from early on. Don't quote me on this, but I believe Rick had been distracted and grieving before the accident, in response to a second breakup with his girlfriend. It was a long time ago, but that is what I remember hearing.
I have been working my way through all of your wonderful Unsung Heroes series, and it's just amazing to me how many great talents have flown under the public radar. I want to say, I especially appreciate your efforts to research and convey what techniques and media each artist used, and also the beautiful typography you've created for your titles.
Pete Beard. I was Rick Griffin's last art agent back in 1991. I have a lot of data and visuals on his last few years when he moved back up north in 1988 which would be highly illuminating for his millions of fans world wide. In March 1991 in his BGP office at 5th and Folsom I worked out a peace between Rick and Bill Graham who became a huge supporter which is a part of a book I am working towards completing I call Rick Griffin Without A Net.
Mr. Beard, your channel is the gold standard for RUclips at it’s best. Big fan of Rick Griffin, too. Thanks! 🙏🍷🎩🎩🎩
Hello and that's a remarkably flattering comment.So thanks very much and I appreciate it immensely. Griffin is always in my crowded list of favourites.
@@petebeard They’re all favorites, but one at a time…it changes every day. ✌️🍷🎩
As a big fan and fellow artist living near Rick's wife, I was able to help a friend view and photograph portfolios of Rick's unpublished drawings and paintings. Every one of the several images was flawlessly rendered. His style was full of life, animated and dramatic and the flow of ideas and composition was stunning. I felt I was in the presence of real genius. This guy had talent.
Many thanks for your comment. For me he remains the most enduring and fascinating of the 60s west coast graphic artists. I hope you think I did his memory justice.
I've been a commercial sign painter and illustrator for over 40 years.
I started building and painting choppers in my late teenage years, and once I found Rick's work, my own painting work took off in a completely new and freer direction. I still, to this very day, thank him for the insight and the open minded quality his work inspired in my own artwork.
After so many years of hanging off scaffoldings and scissor-lifts, and to all the boats and trucks I've lettered and striped throughout all that time, I'm finally settling down to focus my time and efforts on my illustration work.
Thankyou Rick! You'll never know what your art has meant to me.
On another note, I had a good friend Jerry who was a serious surfer back in the late 60's and early 70's, and who became very good friends with Rick.
Rick used to do line illustration posters for Saturday afternoon matinees where they'd show surfer movies at the local theatres.
Jerry had a huge stack of these original hand-drawn movie posters that he brought over one day to show me, as he knew I was a huge fan of Rick's work and that I'd get a kick out of seeing them...which of course, I did! They were just incredible!
Sadly, after my friend passed a few years ago, the posters all but disappeared. I'm sadly almost certain that they ended up in the dump as few people would have recognized the value of these priceless sheets of paper.
Excellent job on Ricks profile there Mr. Beard!
Hello to you and particular thanks for such an insight into your admiration for this great illustrator's work. I have been an admirer since I first saw it in 1970 (being British he and the other 60s guys arrived a bit later to our shores). And his genius has endured I'm glad to say.
I too have seen his work my whole life, being born in the 60's. I started paying attention to his workin my 40's after someone from church gave me the Gospel of John book, which is a phenomenon. As a lifelong professional artist, I realize that there are only some among the millions of us, in history, who actually break ground. Rick Griffin did not just break ground. His work was like a cosmic atomic blast into outer space. In my humble and unasked for opinion, he surpassed many of history's great masters in terms of mindscape , creativity or overall mastery of penmanship. His work to me is unbelievable. Thanks Pete, you're the man for putting this together!!
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation of this video, and comments about Rick Griffin's work. For me it was a genuine labour of love to document the work of one of the greatest illustrators I think the later 20th century produced.
Rick Griffin has been an ENORMOUS influence on my Art ever since I was a teenager, ‘way back when! He was definitely one of the all-time greats from the psychedelic era, and I’m glad to have finally found out so much personal information about his life. Thanks, Pete!
Hello to you and thanks a lot for the comment. I'm pleased you enjoyed it.
Thank you, brother. I completely agree with your assessment. I grew up surfing, and seeing his images as a young fellow did nothing but fire my imagination. And it remains with me to this day.
Thanks a lot for your appreciation. It's very welcome.
I'm Grateful: He's one of my Favourite Artist's. Ever.
Hello and that's good to hear. I've been in awe of his work now for over 50 years, I'm surprised to realise. Where did it all go?
Another fine piece. As I remember it Rick was hit just west of town here and the first we heard about he was in Santa Rosa (nearest good trauma hospital, fifteen miles north) and had passed away. The local Deadheads were especially devastated. He was well liked. I knew he was around but never met him.
Hello and thanks a lot for your appreciation of my tribute. I really think he was one of the most important graphic artists and illustrators of the late 20th century. I've loved his work for over 50 years, I'm shocked to realise.
My father is a Dead head from the 70's , I was born in the late 70's and the AoxomoxoA album art was seared into my brain at a very young age ,it has always been in my life as far back as my earliest memories began to form at 2 or 3 years of age . It still to this day blows my mind every time I look at it .
It took me a long time to understand the music of the Grateful Dead but that imagery had a stong effect on how I viewed the rest of the world and formed my thought process.
I never realized how that artwork has impacted my life in such a powerful way until recently . It made me always take a different path or look around the corner to see what else was going on and never to be satisfied with the mundane.
Rick was a radical cat . RIP
Hello and many thanks for your comment and insight. As anold man who was there at the time (even if on the other side of the Atlantic), the graphics of that period had a profound effect on me and still does. I really think Griffin was a genius.
When I saw RICK GRIFFIN in the title, I had to watch and am glad I did. Thank you!
Hello and thanks for the appreciation. He was a genius as far as I'm concerned.
Finally, a video about one of the great illustrators of the late 60's and early 70's. He was a huge influence on my art. Thanks for putting this together and keep all of your videos coming.
Hello and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. He was a great influence on me too, but I never could attain anything like the level of skill and precision he had.
• Rick Griffin
Great video of a talented artist from my highschool and college days. Luckily my Dad had retired from the USAF at Castle AFB in California and moved us to Austin, TX in 1959, thus missing out on the early hippie and drug culture back on the west coast. Back then, Austin had yet to invent its "Make Austin Weird" motto. But before long, Austin and the University of Texas was inundated with hippies, the drug culture and this kind of art and music. Very interesting times indeed.
However, I always read that Von Dutch had created that "Flying Eyeball" motif and had rendered it on many a California hotrod and motorcycle... and even his own paints/brushes toolbox.
Don't recall Griffin's later religious work and like many of your other artists, he died way too young.
Thnks again for your appreciation of another video. As an old hippie myself I was just starting art school when Zap comix was being published and those marvellous posters were being created. Now it doesn't seem all that shiny, but Crumb and Griffin in particular have endured in my consciousness, I'm glad to say.
I've seen his art my whole life, and just now made the connection. What a revelation and what amazing art in the short time span. Thank you Pete.
Hello again and many thanks for your comment. I'm glad you - and it seems quite a few others - have reacted positively to this video.
These iconic images of the sixties rebooted a part of my brain that I thought had completely atrophied. Thanks for this revitalisation Pete.
Hiya Mark. Don't get me started on memory lane. Making this video was like time travel for me. I had hair and a waist, not to mention a future. Ho hum.
@@petebeard Sounds like we have followed parallel paths, separated by geography, united in a shared culture.
Rick could drive a pen and brush better than anyone. Inspired genius.
Thanks for your comment, with which I wholeheartedly agree.
I jumped inside from the thumbnail! I had an amazing grateful dead tshirt of his work that i gave away to a crush...so sad. i think about that shirt endlessly!!!! Never got laid and never learned my lesson. There is so much novel fodder in his work. Thanks for showing me more of his gift!!!!!!! My dad would have loved to work with him!
Hello and thanks a lot for your appreciation of this video. And I'm sorry to hear about your t-shirt. On the upside it seems Rick Griffin's work lives on in all manner of merchandise and clothing.
@@petebeard i immediately went on ebay to search for it 😂
Your voice is honey. Thank you for doing these outstanding shows and i wish you would read some longer passages for sleep.
That's a very flattering thing to say about my vocal delivery, for which I take no credit at all. To me I just sound like me of course.
I had to watch this again. I lived in SF all through the 70's and his art was everywhere. Thanks for this fine video Pete, I wish we could go back again.
Thank you for this remembrance of Rick.
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation. One of my all time favourites and i just wish I could have learned to emulate his skill with line drawing.
I've always loved Griffin's artwork and I appreciate that your video has some examples I've never seen. Thank you so much.
Hello and thanks a lot for your appreciation of this video, and your subscription.
Thanks Pete - A great blast from my past along with R. Crumb, Elton Kelly, Stanley Mouse and so many others. The poster became the art form that everyone could afford . The excitement of album graphics and illustrators. Their influence continues to this day
Hello again and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I have no proof but I wonder if those posters, along with Marin Share's Hendrix poster - were the first that were intended simply to be hung on bedsit walls.
Alton Kelly
Thanks for doing this. He's been a hero of mine since forever.
Hello and it probably goes without saying but me too, from being 18 in the previous century.
Thanks again. Another wonderful display for me to appreciate his work even more thoroughly.
Thanks for your comment. Of all the 60s hippy artists I find his work to be the most enduring. His line work was terrifyingly precise and expressive.
Great, Great VÍDEO, I agree with you, R. GRIFFIN was one of the best artists in the graphics scene of the XX century, SPECIALLY the 60's through 90's, THANKS !!
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation for this video. As after 50 years he remains one of my all time heroes of illustration it's been nice to see how many others seem to hold him in similar high regard too.
A lovely discussion of a fascinating artist. Thanks, Pete.
Hello and thanks again for your positive ongoing appreciation. And thanks also for your mention of Dick Guindon, who I had never previously heard of.
@@petebeard Dick Guindon was only known to newspaper readers in the Twin Cities (MN) and later Detroit. But he was skillful, having a keen eye for detail that placed his character in time and space. He drew one of the funniest cartoons I'll ever see. A typical dumpy Guindon Midwest character stands by an auto with a flat tire. He pings a wadded bit of paper off the tire. The caption: "Another liberal throwing money at a problem." That was a frequent charge by conservatives who hated progressives who spent tax dollars to fix recalcitrant social problems.
Fantastic. One of my favorites.
Hello and thanks a lot. One of my top 10 too.
Bravo! Brilliant video and insight, I was gobsmacked to see you feature this incredible artist. Great work, thank you!
Hello and thanks a lot for your appreciation. He's been a personal favoutite of mine for over half a century. How time flies...
Excellent! As usual scholarly and artistic. Thanks for the trip back to my youth.
Hi again and thanks again. Yes it's a funny thing how illustration becomes a sort of virtual time travel. I can't look at his work, and that of others from the period without getting lost in personal memories.
I vash dere, Shahlie! Great, as you say, tribute! He may have been rejected by the mainstream of the Faith, "yet wisdom is justified by all her children."
Hello again and thanks again.
Fantastic video. Thank you. Love his work.
Hello and thanks for the comment. I never get tired of looking at his illustrations, especially the perfection of the pen and ink stuff.
A wonderful tribute. I grew up copying his Murphy drawings. Traded a book cover drawing of Murphy or Roth's Rat Fink for other kids' lunch money until the principal shut down my enterprise over too many people borrowing lunch money from the office. The good old days.
Hello and thanks for the amusing comment.I spent my early teens copying Mad artists - mostly Jack Davis - as it wasn't until 1970 that I discovered Griffin's post-acid work.
Thank you for this one. I never knew about him although seen his art. Very sad indeed he died!
Hello again and thanks as usual for the recent comments. And you make a valid point about paths of study. On the other hand if I'd been as talented as Whitcomb I would have sacked the whole idea of formal college education (and to this day still wish I had) and just got out there making a living making pictures.
@@petebeard Hindsight is always somehow a dampener...If I knew then what I know now, my life in art would be completely different. Cheers Pete.
I see the person before me in the comments says what I was going to “I had no idea he was dead.” An enormous loss. Thank you for another great episode...
Hello again. I had heard about his death around the time it happened, but I had put it down to drugs, which was wrong of course. I would have liked to see where his work would have ended up if he had lived longer.
Pete, thank you for all of your videos. I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and have been steadily going through one or two videos every day. I'm much the richer for it.
Hello and that's music to my ears. Thanks a lot and I hope you continue to find stuff you like.
Incredible artist and man.
Thanks Pete.
Hello and thanks a lot. I've been pleasantly surprised by how many positive comments this video is getting.
Thanks Pete. As usual a sensitive and insightful view of one of the last of the by hand, ink on paper no computer illustrators. Griffin and his cohorts seem to me to be the last great hurrah as they honestly tried to keep faith with their predecessors and were willing to sit down at the desk day after day, year after year and crank it out. I wonder if we will see anything of its like again?
Hello and of course I absolutely agree, and sadly I think the signs of a similar flowering are pretty much non-existent. Still, never say never...
@@petebeard I am not really “anti computer”, and have used them a lot in the creation of “illustrations” in their broadest sense, but for reasons I have never been able, or, I guess even tried to articulate, artwork done in electrons always seems to lack “a certain something” that physical materials applied by hand often have. Even with the most beautiful illustrations I can almost always tell the difference between computer generated and hand drawn work. Maybe it is as simple as the small “mistakes” the hand and eye make? It is interesting to scan in something you have done by hand then start adjusting it, detailing, cleaning up little missteps in a paint program in the computer. You find out some things that way, playing around on the borderline. Something I am sure you have considered, probably in a detailed video I haven’t gotten to yet.
I think you are doing a great service with your work and am so happy to see new things appearing regularly. Thank you so much for all the time and effort it must take.
Many thanks for all your videos, Pete. I've greatly enjoyed them all. Superb work.
Hello and I'm very grateful for your enduring appreciation of the channel, and positive comments from viewers are a great motivator to keep making more. Just as well - I don't think I'm halfway there yet...
Great story telling had me invested till the every end. One thing is for sure & that we definitely won’t be able to see what kinds of changes his art would’ve gone through especially as he was getting older.
Hello and many thanks for your positive response to this video. A great and undervalued illustrator.
I didn't know anything about him but as soon as I saw his work I immediately thought 'Grateful Dead'! That was really good to learn about him and also very interesting to learn about his other work. Nice one. :)
Hi again and I'm very pleased you enjoyed the video. He was for me - and remains - one of the all time greats.
Thanks Mr Beard for the great video of Rick Griffin, one of my favorite artists. Being born in the early 70s this style of art was very prominent through the 70-80s through posters and album art, and has become very inspirational to me looking back. If you haven't already the artist Stanley Mouse would be worthy of a video.
Hello and thanks a lot for your appreciation of this video. Regarding Mouse (and Kelly) I'm not sure there's enough available material - pictorial or written - to create a video. But if its any consolation they and quite a few others feature in the video I made about 60s counterculture
@@petebeard Hello and thanks for the reply. If you didn't know Mouse was in the hotrod culture prior to going to San Fran, he was doing the airbrush t-shirt/monster art and there's great controversy that Ed Big Daddy Roth stole his Fred Flypogger character and made Rat Fink, in Mouse's words - "With my identity stolen I went to San Francisco, and the rest is history." He has lots of art prior to his poster/album art and even model kits. Maybe too low-brow but if it was true about Big Daddy(And I'll let you make the judgement on that,) then his early career is majorly overlooked.
@@bluefish4999 Hello again and thanks for the info. You prompted me to look a bit deeper and I'm still not convinced there's enough decent resolution imagery to be had, but if I can find enough I'll feature him down the line. I should also point out, ghoulish as it sounds, that I also have to wait for him to fall off his perch as it's a condition of these one-person profiles. And its just hit me like a breezeblock to the head that he may of course outlive me. Only time will tell...
@@petebeard Ah I didn't know that, in that case let's keep Mouse alive for a while. I look forward to checking out more of your videos, you're doing the arts a favor by introducing these artists to a younger generation, and us older ones too.
This one brought tears.
Hello and thanks for your comments about the Rick Griffin video. It was a real tragedy that he died so young. You have to wonder what he might have created otherwise.
@@petebeard i see i was mistaken in thinking you were unaware of Robert Williams. no surprise. I will let the comment stand for my mention of the movie about Williams.
Thanks so much for highlighting this fantastic artist. Rick Griffin did many record covers, as mentioned in this great video. As fas as I know there are about 40 record covers, including the ones on which he only did the lettering. The "unused album cover for The Cult" was in fact used on the official vinyl release of The Cult 12" Wild Flower. Shouldn't be too hard to find a decent copy on Discogs.
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation of this video and your insight about his work. I had no idea he had that much involvement in album covers.
Thanks Pete for a great video on Mystic Rick [ as he was called] . Great work all the time!!
Hello and thanks. He was one of the 20th century's greatest.
Thank you Pete for this illuminating and visually delightful encapsulation of Mr. Griffin.
May he be surfing some righteous lefts with Jesus for eternity.
Truly inspiring and otherworldly work, a once-in-a-lifetieme graphic visionary.
Hello and I'm particularly pleased that you appreciated this video. Griffin ws a real 20th century giant in my estimation. A great loss when he bowed out early.
i never knew about his death, such a loss, and yeah such great art
Hello, and I do wonder where his creative impulses would have taken him in later life - if he'd had one. But what he did create should never be forgotten.
@@petebeard He did amazingly imaginative work in his 47 years and it does make us wonder what he would have produced. Uncompromising genius.
@@petebeard I remember buying his book in my teens, loved his linework, it inspired me, wasnt so into his religious work back then but now i appreciate the paint style much more, he was a great artist and very underated. I really enjoy these videos, ive even bought books on the back of them, a big fan of Arthur Rackham thanks to these vids and you enlightened me on the golden age of illustration, keep it up mate, a welcome break from the usual vitriol on the net, cheers!
I hit the like button even before the video started! Rick Griffin is amazing!! I remember when I bought Quicksilver Messenger Service's first album I thought "wow, how are you even supposed to read that?!" His experimentation with typography was phenomenal!
I had the opportunity to be acquainted with his 2nd wife/widow many years ago, very interesting (and a very convoluted state of affairs with his estate)... thanks for this overview!!
Thank you for this.
Hello and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for this episode. Although familiar with some of Griffins work I knew little about the artist himself. Looking forward to the next installment :)
Hello again and thanks a lot as usual. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Love the video! Pure eye candy.
Hello, thanks a lot and I agree absolutely. A great talent.
I grew up surfing and creating art in Southern California. Rick Griffin was one of my biggest influences at the time.
Sadly I grew up in the northwest of England, but even so he was and remains one of my all time greats.
OMG my hero Rick Griffin. Pete, you’re a treasure.
I took LSD in the early 90's and it opened something in my imagination that I have access to this very day, and it shows up in every aspect of my art. Ive been a Christian for over 25 years now and my work has only got more psychedelic. I wouldn't suggest experimenting with LSD, its negative effects greatly out weight any creative edge you might gain by fast tracking your imagination. Proper art study and artist research can open up the same areas of your mind without drugs and you'll be better of for it
Thanks for your comment.
@@petebeard you’re welcome, I just discovered your channel, great content 👍✌️
Thanks, Pete!!!
My pleasure.
Top notch stuff... awesome video.
Hello and many thanks for your positive comment.
LOVE Murphy! Great memory from when I was 16 ( 1965 ). I am at Huntington Beach and some arrogant surfers are calling me a gremlin; a young hoodad. I told them that isn't what I was. One of them said "Prove it. Spell bitchen." I replied "B i t c h e n." He looked at me and said I was straight ) rather than lame. I then said "Do I have hair?" He said that yeah I had hair. I know how to spell bitchen right because of Murphy. .
Hello and I'm glad you appreciate this video. His journey from the jagged look of Murphy into his more precise post LSD style is something I've always found fascinating.
I really like his album covers . Very cool stuff . :O)
Thanks a lot for your comment.
As I go through serendipitously discovering the different facets of work on your channel, I'm getting more excited. I love the breadth of time & styles you discuss. Thank You!
Ok Pete Beard, I love your series. I am so happy to see your reverence for this prolific and profound master of the mystic art of the modern age. I too have several prints of Rick Griffin’s work hanging framed on my wall. I am dismayed and hoping however for an update /edit for inclusion of his earlier Lp cover art for the first wave instrumental surf band artists like Richard Delvey and Paul Johnson and also the Packards. This period predates his album art for Quicksilver and the Grateful Dead and is important in the traditions of the current underground wave of surf music and its proliferation as a true worldwide accepted American art form in music . Seems the arts and music community have always held tight bonds.
Hello and thanks a lot for your comment and observations. I was completely unaware of the work you mention, primarily because they neither feature in the book 'Rick Griffin" - sadly the only one I'm aware of, and no examples of the workto be found online. Consequently they are absent from the video.
Always have been one of my favourite artists ...have you thought about Vaughn Bode ...you never cease to amaze me pscho tropic drugs rule xxx
Yes... Vaughn Bode is the man, his stuff was so simple yet mind expansive. Rick Griffin, Vaughn Bode, Mati Klarwein, and Alex Grey are my personal favorites when it comes to psychedelic art.
Hello and I hadn't thought about Vaghn Bode, for the simple reason that I had never heard of him until now. How that's possible given my fascination with the graphics of this period I have no idea. But a quick google has shown what I've been missing. He's probably unlikely to feature in a solo spot if only because unlike the others in this video strand he hasnt been a lifelong favourite of mine. But he's too good to ignore and I'll find a way somewhere down the line to squeeze him in. Many thanks for the name.
@@petebeard hi peter you should check out Bode cobalt 60 i think it is so cool also sunspot and the purple pictography he did with Wrightson such lush marker work x
@@craigdixon7138 Thanks and I certainly will.
I always really loved illustrators and it feels like your channel is this amazing confirmation that I wasn’t crazy, these people were true artists and inspirational enough to remember and spread around! 🤗💜💜💜
Hello and thanks for your continued support of the channel. I have to say it has really gladdened my heart to know so many others appreciate illustration as an artform in itself, and not just 'proper' art's dumb cousin.
For some reason RUclips didn't inform me of this. I had to look it up. Good job on the video. I'm looking forward to more.
Hello and I gave uo trying to work out how RUclips works - or doesn't along time ago. If there was a viable alternative....
Fantastic! So much I didn't know about his background and art. Thanks Pete! Another gem…
Hello again and many thanks for your appreciation. This video seems to have connected with quite a few viewers, I'm glad to say.
I have been binge watching your videos for about a week now. I was so thrilled to see this artist featured. As a Deadhead for the past 35+ years I was not around at the start of the scene. My husband and I were recently wondering about the flying eyeballs since it is a motif that persists in the imagery even to this day. It featured heavily in the recent 2021 Dead & Company tour posters. So now we now why the flying eyeball is there. Your informative and interesting videos enlightening our world. "Once in awhile you get shown the light in the strangest of places of it you look at it right." ....Peace and Love To You Pete!
Hello again and thanks again. I was 18 in 1968 so the whole hippy thing had a serious influence on me. Rick Griffin (and so much of the music) are still part of my life.
This is really great! Thanks for the work you do, it's fantastic!
Hello and many thanks for your postive response and comment. It's good to know I;m getting through to viewers.
Thank you for this wonderful video. Not only did I learn more about this great artist, but I also discovered several new musical artists. Best of both worlds. 👍
Hello again and thanks a lot. I've been a great admire of his work for the best part of half a century, I'm stunned to realise.
Thank you, Mr Beard: having spent countless hours poring over Rick Griffin's work I'm delighted to find that you rate him pretty highly too. :-)
Hello and thanks for your appreciation. I first saw his work when I went to art college in 1969 and I've been an admirer of his work ever since. It's the control of line work that really impresses me - and of course the imagination.
Thank You sir for another brilliant insight...
Hello and thanks for your appreciation of the video and channel content.
Rick was a friend and actually got me started doing my first posters. Your video has done Rick and his artwork justice. In the poster documentary produced by Merle Becker and called "Ameican Artifact" I called him, "The Michaelangelo of postert art."
Hello again and thanks for both your recent comments. I'm particuarly pleased you approve of the Rick Griffin piece. His work had a profound impact on me when I first saw it in 1969. Of course being British all the west coast stuff arrived a little late. I bought my first copy of Zap in that year too (a British pirated re-print of course). And Jim Flore was entirely unknown to me until a a year or two ago. It's strange what does and deoen't travel between the continents.
@@petebeard I am really enjoying you videos. I always found Rick Griffin's artwork stunning. He seemed to be able to use any technique for pen & ink to airbrush and actual painting on canvas. His religeous paintings and illustrations for the Gospel of John are so dynamic. I am fortunate to have an autographed copy. Nobody can paint water like Rick could. Maybe it was because of all that surfing he did - ha!!! I first saw the work of Alex Steinweis and Jim Flora in my father's record collection of albums from the 40s and 50s. Ironically, I didn't know about Flora's childrens boooks.
@@dennisloren1568 Hello again, and I'm very pleased that you appreciate the channel. It starte d out as a way to stop me getting bored in my retirement. I thought maybe I'd make a dozen or so and attract views in the hopeful hundreds. Now it's like a third career, with an enormous list of subjects waiting in line to feature. I'm hoping not to fall off my perch any time soon so fingers crossed, there will be many more.
Quality, that Pete. I need some of his prints on my wall.
Hi again and thanks for the comment. It's the descriptive contolled line work that 'blows my mind' as my generation used to say.
Rick Griffin's art was all over 1970s California. I did not not know much about him, and it is interesting that he became a believer.
Hello and many thanks for your comment. It waa certainly an unexpected conversion.
Thank you for a thoughtful introduction to artwork I had been incurious about at the time -
Hello again, and that happens to me all the time, and not just with illustration. It seems very little is set in stone.
Pete, i'm an illustrator from Chile, i wanted to thank you for this channel, i'm glad i found this incredible amount of inspiration ,information and respectful tribute to the artists and the graphic art in every chapter. Cheers!
Hello and I'm very pleased you found the channel. I hope you continue to enjoy the content. It's always rewarding when a professional pays a compliment. And I had to check out your own work - great pen technique and I hope you are getting plenty of work.
Love Rock Griffins work totally..thank you for his legacy!!
Hello and my pleasure. He was one of the greats of the 20th century, and I hope he'll always be remembered.
Excellent coverage of this artist, whom I only saw in those underground comics, I think his poster and large illustration work is where he excels. I can't deny his skill level.
Hello and try as I might I could never emulate his precision and descriptive ability with pen/brush and ink.
Groovy, man . That was really far out !
Hello and thanks. To keep up the hippie theme Griffin blew my mind when I was young and had hair.
Fantastic!!
Hello and thanks a lot for your appreciation of the video.
brilliant as always
Hi and I'm grateful as ever for your appreciation.
Fascinating Pete. This work was outside my time in a way, though like many I was almost certainly glancingly aware of some. How could it be otherwise! Seeing this I could wish my awareness had been greater but furthering my career had by his time become a focused necessity. My doodles frequently came out this way though! Your videos continue to give much enjoyment of something lost.
Hello again and thanks once more for your continued support of the channel. Just to follow up on your comment about focus I'm almost relieved I didn't know about quite a few of the illustrators I've featured (although Griffin was high on my list of favourites as a young illustrator) because I would have never settled down into even an approximation of a recognisable personal style - too much of a chameleon. An agent I had many years ago said she struggled to market my work because I was never the same twice.
Loved his stuff from Murph onward
Hello and glad you liked it.
So Good thanks!!
Hello and I'm glad you enjoyed it. He was one of the greatest as far as I'm concerned.
my longest hell yeah ever
Thank you for great your work Pete. On May 11, 2023, one original "Flying Eyeball" poster signed (probably his most famous painting right ?) was sold on Heritage Auctions for $175,000...
Hello and thanks for your appreciation. Good grief! $175,000 for a print! I hope his descendents got some of it.
Greatness !
Hello and glad you enjoyed it. He really was one of the best.
Re The Cult: Wildflower was a single from the album Electric, which DID use his art for the cover.
Hello and thanks for the info.
Outta all the artists that came from the Frisco underground comix scene Griffin for me was miles ahead of any of them.
Hello and I absolutely agree. At the time it was for me mainly Robert Crumb, probably because of the more controversial nature of his work, but as I matured Griffin became the more enduring. Still admire Crumb a lot though.
Some of Griffin's work for Zap Comix was simply breathtaking. (Strong word, but it is not inaccurate.) Art aims higher; Griffin was an artist.
Hello and thanks for the comment. Naturally enough I agree with you totally about his work.
Interesting change of pace for this channel! Griffin is definitely one of those illustrators who I can't believe I haven't heard of before. He seems to have influenced people like Richard Corben with his use of paintbrush.
Hello again and I'm very pleased to have introduced you - and others - to this most influential of illustrators.
Hi Pete, thanks to the mighty youtube algorithm I found your channel - Rick Griffin was a favourite artist of mine - I'm still pained by the fact someone stole my original copy of his book - which is now on sale, second hand, on amazon for £276!! :-(
Hello to you and thanks for the comment. Luckily (for me) I still have my copy, and isn't it outageous that nobody has published a book of the man's work following his untimely death. I did see a copy - a
little worse for wear- for £25 on amazon.
His album artwork for The Cult didn't go unused, though. Eventually it was used for the compilation 'Best Of Rare Cult', from 2000.
Hello and yes I know. I meant in his lifetime.
*Nod* to the "Unsung heros of the San Francisco poster era" the printers, pressmen who worked with the artists, Bindweed Press (Frank Westlake), Cal Litho, West Coast Litho,Tea Lautrec (Levon Mosgofian) and others.
Good article "San Francisco Rock Posters and the Art of Photo-Offset Lithography". It was a labour intensive team effort to make a poster.
Griffen's typography looks like L.A. Pachuco and Cholo script tag graffiti, Varrio, Victor Horta's whiplash line, slab serif Wild West Fold typeface and MAD Magazine mixed together in a blender.
Pete, did ya' get to see Griffen's retrospective show at the Roundhouse in London or, the Sutherland Art Center in Northern England back in 1976?
*Thanks* for the flashback
Interestingly, since the print shops were small one-colour sheet fed offset photo lithography presses, twenty-four inch wide, the average poster size was fourteen by twenty inches and down for tickets, passes, etc..
Early papers were uncoated pulp that asborbed the inks with a dot-gain that made for a less resoluted image compared to later heavily coated (clay surface) with more ink and saturated colours. The paper stock was the same used for Birds Eyes frozen vegetables box packages, if anyone remembers pre-plastic packaging. I always assumed the frozen vegetable boxes were wax coated not clay.
The four-colour CMYK process started with a heavy layer of yellow followed by magenta, cyan and black. The order could differ. One article, Griffen's site, said he started with black. Perhaps, meant, black ink on illustration board before the acetate overlays or bluelines. One colour run could take fourty-five minutes allowing the ink to dry. Some were wet-in-wet. Placing several colour inks in the ink fountain during a single run gave the "rainbow fountain" effect of a gradation of colours across several lines of text.
Griffen's work was more linearly defined compared to Victor Moscoso's emphasis on colours. Moscoso studied with Joseph Albers if that gives any idea where he was coming from. Using simultaneous complementary colours, equal value contrasting colours, adjacent to each other gave a vibrant effect as its difficult for the eye to focus on both colours at the same time. Using alternating coloured lights emphasized red, yellow and blue colours separately in the poster giving it an animated look.
And yes, no day-go colours were used.
Question is whelter these posters were acid-free stock?
Thank you for reminding me of Frank Westlake’s last name and business name. From 1976 to 1983 I worked for two underground comix publishers. Last Gasp was located at 2180 Bryant at 20th St in a brick warehouse owned by Frank Westlake. The basement had pallets full of posters and handbills from the Family Dog. Wish I had been allowed to look around but we were sent to get boxes of our inventory, nothing more.
Yes a zap illustrator maybe we get a full Crumb video one day would be awesome, good stuff man
Hello and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Crumb is of course another all time favourite, but unlike Griffin, he has had - and still gets - a large amount of attention. I did feature him (if only briefly) in the video 'between the lines' and I would love to give him a solo spot. But I doubt I could add anything that hasn't aready been covered by others.
@@petebeard yeah that's very true it was pretty neat to see Rick's other contribution to art
Twixt Freak Brothers & Hawkwind.
I first met Rick in February 72, I was an artist and back then met his wife’s (Ida) brother Bob and he was going to a BBQ party in San Clemente Rick and Ida were having. Bob knew I had every original prints of Zap comics. So he thought it be great to bring me along and meet Rick and his sister. Rick was just starting to get into his Christian thing but he still smoked pot. Well that night after drinking and smoking we all started talking art and Rick and I got into a debate about art. I found myself discussing modern art with him and a couple of Ricks artist friends. They thought modern art was trash and junk. At one point Rick got up and told me get out of his house then looked at Bob and said time for us to go. So we did. About a month later Rick and Ida went up to Santa Ana were I had a huge studio in the basement of an old building, Bob had a large studio on 2nd floor. I was at work at the time, but Bob asked if they’d like to see my paintings, Bob took them down and showed them. My paintings were in large format (4’x6, 4x8 5x6). When I came home from work that day there was a note taped to my door from Rick. Saying he was sorry throwing me out that night and that he’d like to meet up again. Ending with your paintings are different than what expected and he appreciated seeing them. After that we became friends and he painted his first large painting after that all his paintings were 3’x4’ or bigger, the biggest one was 4’x8’. We stayed friends for years but lost touch when he moved up to Santa Cruz where he died
Hello and many thanks for sharing your memories of Rick Griffin. I was at art school when I first saw his work in Zap and I was instantly hooked. Being several thousand miles away from the whole San Francisco thing I could only fantasize about what seemed like a particularly exotic culture, compared to the northwest of England. Anyway thanks again, and you have made more real the man behind the fantastic images.
@@petebeard Rick was a highly skilled and train artist. Our discussions/arguments were often about what defines art? My work at the time was based on layers of paint creating separate images (like they were broken images stacked over each other. It was at that time that Rick started doing his Christian paintings all on larger scale than he had been working on. And if you look at his Christian pieces you will see he started painting in separated dimensions (layers to create the image).
At the time he was already established and famous but I think to this day my work turned him on to that technique but Rick did it his own way and he applied his trained master skills to it. Another great zap artist you might want to look into is Robert Williams he and Robert Crumb were my favorites for different reasons. Rick and my friendship strained when he got all caught up in his Christian religiosity. He did a painting of the devil and used my face because I was/am an atheist. He could be a very intense person, then be detached and easy going. I once challenged him to do an abstract painting and he did the 4’x8’ blue cosmic solar burst thing he couldn’t let go of painting “objects/things” but it was really well done and you could see his skills with paint and color. RIP Rick.
Hello again and once more my thanks for your revealing personal insight. And thanks for Robert Williams. I was vaguely aware of his contributions to zap but I had no idea about his paintings, which I must say are absolutely fascinating. And pardon my intrusiveness but is there somewhere online I could see your own creations?
@@petebeard hi peter thanks for your response. I don’t really want to give out my website over you tube due to all the various issues I comment on, because my website is my name so I worry about harassment from people I have political, religious, cultural or social differences with. You never know who some of these people are. Some are nuts.
Williams was one I thought was really a seriously good artist, I’m glad you liked him. In 2012 I decided I would stop painting and making art. I spent a couple months thinking what would be my last painting then I spent about 6 months painting it. Never painted again.
Hello and I totally understand. I'm pretty wary myself when it comes to giving the mentally challenged a direct line to my digital location. I get my share of weird and abusive remarks on youtube as it is but at least it's easy to block them. So all I can say is keep on truckin'
No comment on this one Pete.
I didn't think it would be your kind of thing, but you don't have to feel obliged to comment - especially if there is no comment. Maybe next time around...
You should do a video on Warhammer and WH 40k illustrations. Great channel.
Hello and thanks for your appreciation of the channel and its content. Regarding the Warhammer suggestion I'm afraid it's way outside my sphere of knowledge. At my age there are only so many new tricks this old dog can learn.
Amazing!! was wondering if more rock related illustrators will be introduced in the future?
Hello and thanks. Funnily enough one of my earliest videos was about the psychedelic 60s and the poaters, album covers and comics of the period. But it got clobbered because I used copyright music from the time, so I decided to take it down and re-make with my own soundtrack (I'm an amateur musician). Because of that it's taking a long time to re-make. Hopefully it'll appear in a month or so.
Seems like elements of his style made it into some of Jim Woodring’s work
Hello and thanks for the comment. And even more thanks for the name Jim Woodring. A remarkable talent (and yes the influence is obvious) and somebody I had never previously heard of. So my eternal gratitude for that.