About the Influences
I fell in love with music early on and loved pouring over the details of album covers as I listened to the records. So, the graphic intent of the cover became fused with the music. My natural curiosity blossomed in the mid seventies when pop culture was caught in a great shift, simultaneously celebrating the old vanguard of the summer of love while gazing with fear and curiosity at burgeoning punk scene in the US and UK. My imagination was charged by the old Fillmore and Avalon posters of Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley and the Grande Ballroom designs by Gary Grimshaw. I was equally drawn to the cut & paste sensibility of Dada and the guerrilla aesthetic of punk artists that came later. These combined with my love of 50's & 60's cartoons made for quite a mess of styles when I first started designing fliers in the 80's.
I've since developed an appreciation for the graphic elements of Deco, mid-centrury modern design, the album art and photography of jazz albums from Blue Note, Impulse, Fantasy & Prestige Records. The old school xerox machine, scissors, tape, sharpies markers and glue sticks have, for the most part, been replaced by the Mac, photoshop and illustrator but it's all still filtered through my comic book and cartoon sensibility.
