{"id":528,"date":"2008-06-04T21:49:25","date_gmt":"2008-06-05T04:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/06\/alton-kelley-gone\/"},"modified":"2008-06-05T00:52:28","modified_gmt":"2008-06-05T07:52:28","slug":"alton-kelley-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/04\/alton-kelley-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"Alton Kelley Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Press Release from The Earth Times<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Alton Kelley<\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

Posted on : 2008-06-02 | Author : Evolutionary Media Group\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

1940 – 2008 PETALUMA, Calif., June 2<\/span><\/p>\n

PETALUMA, Calif.<\/location>,\u00a0June 2<\/chron>\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ — Legendary artist\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

\"photo\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alton Kelley\u00a0created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic Sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time. Kelley, born\u00a0June 17, 1940<\/chron>, passed away peacefully at home on\u00a0Sunday, June 1st 2008<\/chron>\u00a0of complications from a long illness.<\/p>\n

(Photo:\u00a0http:\/\/www.newscom.com\/cgi-bin\/prnh\/20080602\/LAM040<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/a> He is survived by the true love of his life,\u00a0Marguerite Trousdale Kelley. He also leaves his mother Annie, sister Kathy, and beloved children Patty, Yossarian, and\u00a0China<\/location>, and beautiful grandchildren Life and Lacoda.Through his mind-expanding creativity and over several decades, Kelley gave rock music new colors, shapes, and themes expressing the optimism and enthusiasm of young people around the globe. His graphics defined youth culture as much as the music itself — in effect his art was a break-through collaboration with musicians and bands such as the Grateful Dead,\u00a0\u00a0Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. As\u00a0Joel Selvin, rock critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, put it, “Kelley and Mouse drew the first face on rock music.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelley and his life-long collaborator\u00a0Stanley Mouse\u00a0are best known for their posters for “San Francisco<\/location>\u00a0style” dance-concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, Winterland arena, the Fillmore West, the Avalon Ballroom, and a host of other Bay Area theaters and amphitheaters. \"JourneyThey also created world-renowned posters and album covers for the Grateful Dead, Journey,\u00a0Steve Miller, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and others.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two artists historically worked as a team, in their words “riffing off each other’s giggle.”\u00a0They joyfully appropriated from historic sources, in one instance re-working an\u00a0obscure nineteenth-century etching to create their iconic Grateful Dead “skeleton and roses” design. They combined vibrant Sixties color with French poster-making joi de vivre enthusiasm, and their own adapted technique, to generate compelling pieces often issued on a weekly basis, ultimately dazzling millions worldwide. Thus, they changed advertising art forever, as their posters were key examples of what became one of the most important art movements of the latter part of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

When Kelley (a native of\u00a0Maine<\/location>) met Mouse (a native of\u00a0Detroit, MI<\/location>) in\u00a0<\/a>San Francisco’s\u00a0Haight-Ashbury district in late 1965 (the “Haight” was the epicenter of the hippie movement, culminating in the “Summer of Love” in 1967), they instantly recognized they\u00a0were kindred spirits in what Mouse describes as “one of the juiciest scenes of all time.” Their concert posters, commissioned by\u00a0Fillmore\u00a0promoter\u00a0Bill Graham\u00a0and Graham’s rival, the Avalon’s Family Dog collective, were eagerly snapped up by bands and fans alike.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the decades since, Mouse and Kelley’s classics have established even greater popularity, rivaling the interest long shown by collectors of French turn-of-the-century Belle Epoque art made famous by Toulouse-Lautrec and others.<\/p>\n

“There is one word for\u00a0Alton Kelley’s\u00a0lifelong contribution, and that is ‘iconic.'” said\u00a0Dell Furano, CEO of Signatures Network. “Kelley’s artwork, designs, posters, album covers, tour logos set a standard of inspired creativity that has remained as influential as the great San Francisco Rock Scene of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his later years, Kelley joyfully turned to illustrating hot rods and custom cars, as fine art paintings, and for t-shirts and other merchandise.<\/p>\n

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at the Washington Mutual Western Street branch in\u00a0Petaluma, CA\u00a0for a memorial bench in a Sonoma County Park. A memorial event will be announced shortly.<\/p>\n

For members of the press: photographs, selected artwork, and video bites are available by contacting: Jennifer Gross Evolutionary Media Group 323-658-8700 Jennifer@emgpr.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[ click to read release at EarthTimes.org<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Press Release from The Earth Times Alton Kelley Posted on : 2008-06-02 | Author : Evolutionary Media Group\u00a0 1940 – 2008 PETALUMA, Calif., June 2 PETALUMA, Calif.,\u00a0June 2\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ — Legendary artist\u00a0 \u00a0 Alton Kelley\u00a0created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic Sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}