Stanley Mouse's book "Freehand"
IWS%...@cdfq.ssd.ray.com
then this book is it!
"Freehand: The Art Of Stanley Mouse" is a retrospective of Mouse's art
work which has recently been published by Snow Lion Graphics of San
Francisco. If you aren't aware of it, Stanley Mouse was one of the five
artists (along with Rick Griffin, Wes Wilson, Alton Kelley, and Victor
Moscoso) who were responsible for the psychedelic posters that announced
the dances and concerts at the Avalon, Family Dog, and Fillmore, among
other places. I've always thought that his posters were the visual
representation of what happened musically at these concerts: you could
expect to melt and flow just like his artwork did on the posters.
"Freehand" is a retrospective, and it covers a lot of ground. It starts
out with a very nice piece by Stanley Mouse, talking about himself, his
start as an artist, and his adventures from the time he started his hot
rod airbrush t-shirts in Detroit to the present. Then come the five
epochs of Mouse. The first of these are the airbrushed hot rods of the
late 50's and early 60's (yes, the "Rat Fink" character made famous by
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth was based on Mouse's "Freddie Flypogger"). Next,
the soul-melting psychedelic dance posters, drawn either by Stanley Mouse
or with Alton Kelley. In the 70's and 80's, Mouse drew many of the album
covers and other artwork used by the Grateful Dead ("Skull and Roses",
"Terrapin Station", "Cats Under The Stars", "Europe 72", and "Mars Hotel"
are among the too numerous to name), Steve Miller, and Journey. The
sections entitled "Drug Free Zone" and "Moksha" show his explorations in
other styles and mediums and influences. Some of these you've seen as
posters and book covers. But others, if you didn't know who the artist
was, you wouldn't even begin to guess that it was Stanley Mouse. They
are very different, quite inspired, and it is nice to see what he has
been exploring.
The book finishes off with an excellent essay by Walter Medeiros.
Medeiros puts a perspective on many of the influences that are evident
in Mouse's work. He does a wonderful analysis of the dance posters, how
the various elements are used, and their effect on how we see the work.
I call this section, and Mouse's introduction, the 'here's how he did it
and why' sections. If you are an aspiring artist, or just want to know
more, these really give you an insight into the how and what of drawing.
There's only one thing wrong this otherwise excellent-a-mundo book.
It's just too darn short! :-) There is a lot of other art work that
I would love to have seen included in this book - for example, all the
Monster Company airbrush work, which is covered very sparingly in the
book, plus more how-did-he-do-it, like the front cover of "Workingman's
Dead". I would like to see more :-)
Enjoy the book - Ihor i...@ssmic.ssd.ray.com
p.s. Sorry for getting carried away there at the end, but I really would
like to see more :-)
Gail Edwards
>If you've ever wanted to see a lot of Stanley Mouse's work in one place,
>then this book is it!
Thanks for the nice review, Ihor. I got Mr. Mouse to autograph a copy of
this when he was in the city last Monday. I also loved the introductory
collection of short essays by Mouse. It was fun finding out how Stanley
got the name Mouse. And fun having Stanley tell about how he decided to
enroll in art school after getting expelled from highschool. Fun reading
about his ill-fated trip to England and going to the hash party that
inspired the Beatles tune "Birthday". Mouse's dedication to Griffin was
both funny and sad: "Paint the Pearly Gates, Rick. And don't let
Uncle Bill charge admission." Then of course, there's all that incredible
art work. Wow!
Now I'll be the first to admit to being partial to Stanley. If you don't
believe me, just ask my friends. But well, I love this book. If
you're lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, go check out Mouse's Studio
in Sonoma. What I usually do is phone first and leave a message when I'm
coming to make sure it's open. Oftentimes Stanley is there, and he's
kinda quiet and shy, but very entertaining and you never know what'll
happen. One day I arrived and Kelly was there with a quite unusual
woman whose name I don't know, and the 3 of them entertained all 2 of us
customers for about an hour with the most amazing stories of "the old days".
Kelly introduced himself as the Woodstock Festival artist, and it wasn't til
I got home and was flipping through Jerilyn's book that I realized this
was Kelly of Mouse Studios. Goes to show, you don't ever know!
Gail