MAINE COLLEGE OF ART

The Live Dead Experience

By

James Cousens III

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

Bachelor of Fine Arts In Printmaking

Portland, Maine May 2021 Table Of Contents

Text Body ……………………………………………………... 1

Figures ……………………………………………………….. 12

Works Cited …………………………………………………. 18

Image Checklist ……….………………………………..……. 19

Images of Work ………………………………………………. 20

Artist Bio …………………………………………………….. 23

Artist Statement ……………………………………………… 24

CV ……………………………………………………....……. 25 Cousens 1

This past year, music has made its way to the forefront of my work. While it has always played a part in my studio process by informing my color choices and palettes, I have started to focus on the emotional effect of experiencing music and the people who make it, specifically the

60’s jam band the . My installation consists of two large poster-sized prints, both featuring the same multilayer relief print of several members of the “Dead” in concert; one is printed on top of a collage made up of torn screen prints, and the other over a solid flat of color.

By displaying these pieces together, I am comparing the impermanence of live performance with the reproducibility of studio records through the use of appropriated symbols which are representative of different parts of the concert experience. This visual sampling is the result of extensive research into the Grateful Dead’s tour scene, as well as growing up listening to colorful stories told by my parents who got to live it for themselves. I aim to pay reverence to the band themselves, as well as the artists and poster designers that created the visual language of expressive and .

What attracts me to the arts, both visual and performance, is the ability to express emotion in ways that words alone can not. Live performances are especially exciting to me because the energy of a concert heightens the experience for both the audience and performer.

The Grateful Dead was a band that particularly capitalized on this dynamic, playing long improvised jams and solos as their fans got lost in the emotional space of the music. So many factors contribute to the emotional and sometimes spiritual experience of live shows. Their concerts were not only about the music, but about the whole experience.

My installation consists of two framed prints, both 36”x24”, which is a standard poster size and meant to be reminiscent of the classic gig posters that I am using as reference. Both prints feature the same multilayer relief print, which depicts several members of the Grateful Cousens 2

Dead in concert, including , , , and , each playing their respective instruments. One print, titled The Grateful Dead- Live, is printed on top of a collage made up of torn screen prints. The collage consists of different appropriated symbols representative of the concert experience, including elements from the original gig posters and album art, important characters such as Ken Kesey, popular venues like Winterland, ticket stubs, written accounts of what the experience was like, and some hints towards other things one may have experienced at a show, such as LSD. By printing the band over this collage, I aim to unify these different aspects of the collage into a visual texture, containing lots of ideas which intersect to form the live concert experience. By using slightly more neutralized colors in the collage, the focus remains on the band, which is the catalyst for bringing all of these things together in one place and time. In contrast, the second print titled The Grateful Dead- LP is not printed over a collage, but rather a flat of solid color. By removing the collage, which acted as the element of uniqueness in each print, this print is inherently easier to reproduce in mass. But there is something noticeably missing in this print. The spontaneity of the torn paper collage represents the improvisation present in live music, which can not be captured in recorded albums.

The particular method of relief printing I am using also speaks to my personal relationship to the Dead. Multilayer reliefs, sometimes referred to as “suicide prints” are special because you slowly destroy your matrix with each layer of the print. In this process I start with a single linoleum block, and each time I print a layer, I carve away more and more of the block.

For each layer, I “cut away the block everywhere that the previous color is to exist in the final image.” 1 This turns the printing process into a performance of its own, as once I am done the result can never be exactly replicated. I see an interesting metaphor in thinking of the performer

1 Fick, Bill, and Beth Grabowski. Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2015. 96 Cousens 3 as the matrix, slowly giving more and more of themselves to the art until there is nothing left of themselves, only the remnants of what they had created. In the case of the Dead, that refers to their studio records and tapes of live shows, and for me the result is the print.

Although printmaking is usually thought of as a traditional craft, many techniques have developed to take advantage of various rapidly progressing technologies. Early on in my process, at the planning and designing stages, I am able to utilize digital programs such as Adobe

Photoshop and Illustrator which allow me to prepare my designs with greater control than with traditional media. I use these programs, which are designed to manipulate photographs, to turn my reference photos into digital paintings. In these paintings I use solid blocks of color which each correspond to a range of values. When seen together, these blocks of color give the illusion of three dimensional form in my images and figures, with each color showing how light interacts with the surface of the form. I enjoy using these programs in conjunction with traditional printmaking techniques such as linoleum carving, as I feel it strikes a balance between the control of my digital process and the evidence of my hand and the labor I put into carving and printing my work. When I go to print, my hand (along with an element of chance) is reintroduced, which is the part of the print process that I think gives each print that element of uniqueness and character. This conversation about the accuracy of digital manipulation and spontaneity of the printmaking process I feel also parallels the relationship between studio-recorded and improvised live music, as studio records are heavily edited and done in many takes, whereas live music can be imperfect and inconsistent, but that is a part of what makes it special.

I must also acknowledge that to make a piece of art about live performance during a global pandemic where concerts and tours have been canceled for over a year, there is an Cousens 4 inherent element of longing and loss involved. As I am making my work, listening to recordings of shows, and thinking about the concert experience, I am wishing I could experience it myself once again. Compounding that feeling of distance and separation is the fact that even if there was no pandemic shutting down shows, the Grateful Dead themselves are no longer performing. To make work about them now is to attempt to recreate an experience that I never got to have in order to get as close to it as possible, loaded with the pent-up energy of quarantine.

I grew up listening to the music of the Grateful Dead and hearing stories about my parents' experiences of following them on tour for multiple summers. I myself never got the opportunity to see the Grateful Dead live in concert because the band broke up following Jerry’s death in 1995, four years before I was born. So I am left longing for an experience I will never be able to get firsthand, except through recordings and reproductions. With this project I am attempting to understand for myself through research and conversations with people who are able to give first hand accounts of what it was like to go to a Dead show and the intersection of all of the things that contribute to that experience. This is shown through physically collaging and layering these elements together to give the audience a sense of what the experience might have been like.

The Grateful Dead formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California, just outside of .

Some of their earliest gigs were at Ken Kesey’s , which were wild parties involving music, dancing, and LSD. The structure of these events made it so that there was very little pressure on the Dead to perform a certain type of way, which meant they could take risks and experiment. Their members came from an eclectic background, both musically and personally.

They played a combination of rock, bluegrass, folk, country, and jazz. The Dead were known Cousens 5 mainly for their live performances, and over the course of their 30 years together played over

2,300 concerts.2

The band has had many variations over the years, but the core group include lead guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia, rhythm guitarist and singer Bob Weir, bassist , and drummers

Mickey Hart and . The keyboardist spot saw a number of faces over the years including Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Keith Godchaux, Brent Mydland, and Vince Welick.

Lyricists and are also referred to as official members of the band, despite the fact that they themselves did not perform onstage.3 However the lyrics of the songs and the songwriting process itself were so important to the band that they were considered a part of the family. In addition to the band themselves, there was a large crew required to make their shows happen. Steve Parish, Laurence “Ram Rod” Shurtliff, Bill Candelario, Robbie

Taylor, and Billy Grillo were among dozens of roadies who helped set up venues, including the massive 600-speaker “Wall of Sound” designed by Owsley “Bear” Stanley. Bear was the band’s audio engineer as well as producer, funding the band with his production and distribution of high-quality LSD. He was also the band’s own private supplier of the substance as well.4

Grateful Dead performances are so inspiring to me because they had a special connection to their audience. The energy they received from the audience would be returned through their music and vica-versa. Their shows were a two-way street in that way. The Dead ended up with a reputation for being slightly inconsistent for that reason. Some nights everything would click and they will be in tune with the audience and each other. Other nights they struggle to put something together. It is why some of their venues became more popular than others- places like Winterland

2 McNally, Dennis. A : The inside History of the Grateful Dead. New York: Broadway Books, 2001. 3 "Grateful Dead Biography." Grateful Dead. Accessed April 15, 2021. https://www.dead.net/biography. 4 McNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip: The inside History of the Grateful Dead. New York: Broadway Books, 2001. Cousens 6 or Fillmore West in San Francisco, Fillmore East in New York, or Red Rocks Amphitheatre in

Colorado- because the crowds there brought the sort of energy that the Dead fed off of.

There is a quote from lyricist John Barlow talking about the difference between recording records in the studio versus playing live shows which highlights this relationship between Band and Audience really well. He says:

“[There] is such a symbiosis between the audience and the band, and the intensity of the involvement

between the audience and the band has become such a major part of it, that I don’t think they can really do

it in the studio anymore. Whatever is that the Grateful Dead does is not something that can be done under

glass. It's got to be done out where things are visceral and human.” 5

A great Dead show really was a community effort, and I think being able to actively participate in that as a member of the audience may have been a part of why the experience was so impactful. I am trying to pull as many elements of the concert experience into the collage of my print as a way of attempting to simulate this experience, or at least hint towards what it might have been like.

Another part of what makes listening to the Dead so interactive is the symbolism and subjectivity within their lyrics. While some songs are more narrative, others are surreal poetry.

Lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow both have an incredible ability to write songs that are so dense in meaning, while still being subjective and leaving room for listeners to attach their own meanings to the song. Hunter once said “a symbol, by its very nature, can pull in many, many shades of meaning, depending on the emotional tone with which you engage the piece.” 6

Not only does this speak to the subjectivity of personal experience, but acknowledges that the symbols can function differently not just depending on your life experience, but also the mood you are in when listening to it. I think this is a great insight into what makes their live shows

5 Gans, David. 2009. Conversations With The Dead. Da Capo Press. 264 6 Ibid. 23 Cousens 7 resonate so deeply with the audience. The atmosphere of a Grateful Dead concert creates a feeling like no other that primes the audience to make a real emotional connection to the music.

The intention of leaving room for interpretation goes beyond the specific symbols found in the lyrics of the songs. Barlow and Hunter both when asked to explain their lyrics often admit their songs do not have a clear meaning. They claim that they deal more with “feeling” than with meaning. 7 Their lyrics have been described as poetic and surrealist, far detached from a specific meaning, yet still carrying an emotional weight. For example, a song like Dark Star (written by

Hunter) is a fan favorite, but every listener has their own interpretation of its meaning. Jerry

Garcia, when asked to describe the meaning of the song replied that “‘Dark Star’ has meant, while I’m playing it, almost as many things as I can sit here and imagine.” 8

My attempt at representing this emotional space is, to me, reminiscent of expressionism, which is about presenting the world from a subjective perspective. Rather than trying to depict objective reality, expressionists aim to show the effect it has on a person in order to evoke a certain mood or feeling.9 I see this as very similar to what I am attempting, as I am not trying to literally recreate a concert, but rather convey for myself and my audience what it must have felt like to go to a live show. Early expressionists also took especially to printmaking, as it allowed for easier distribution of their work. Their work, like mine, typically used flattened planes and bold colors. 10

While making work about music and the live experience, I find myself in conversation with the artists who produced the experience originally. In addition to the bands themselves, there were many artists who helped to create the visual atmosphere of concerts. In my collage, I

7 Ibid. 8 Garcia, Jerry, Charles Reich, and Jann Wenner. 2009. Garcia. Da Capo Press. 9 "MoMA Learning." MoMA. Accessed April 16, 2021. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/expressionism/. 10Ibid. Cousens 8 have sampled some of the iconic imagery of poster artists, who’s designs were meant to not only attract people to shows, but to represent the experience in a visual way. I am also interested in how movements such as expressionism, psychedelic art, and pop art are in dialogue in my work.

Gig Posters, despite being purely visual, are meant to convey the same feelings as the music they were made to promote. I have been primarily investigating the posters of 60’s and

70’s psychedelic rock bands, which was centralized in the Bay Area arts scene. 11 Psychedelic rock in particular speaks to me because it also works in this space of emotion and subjectivity. I have looked at a lot of work by prominent artists of the time, specifically gig poster artists such as , , and , who did a lot of the artwork for bands in the

San Francisco Bay area including the Grateful Dead. Each had their own strengths in design, and together they shaped the model of psych-rock artwork for years to come. Wilson was known for his letterforms, bending and stretching letters into whatever shapes he wanted. Sometimes they were meant to look like something representational like a face, while others they simply filled the negative space in his designs. Alton Kelley made collages where he would connect seemingly disparate symbols into something rich with meaning, yet subjective enough to allow viewers to add their own meaning to the work. Stanley Mouse was more of an illustrator, working in the style of art nouveau and borrowing from artists like Edmund J Sullivan, who did the original pen and ink drawing of a skeleton wrapped in roses, which would become the famous ‘66 poster (fig. 1) and then later used on the Dead’s Skull and Roses album cover (fig. 2) 12. In my current work I am trying to combine these elements together- text, collage, and illustration- as they make up the visual language of the Grateful Dead.

11 Boyd-Smith, Steve. “‘The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-1971.’” Journal of American History 97, no. 1 (June 2010): 123–27. doi:10.2307/jahist/97.1.123. 12 Cushway, Phil. Art of the Dead. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press, 2012. Cousens 9

Psych-rock graphics took a lot of inspiration from Surf Art, which was popularized in the early 60’s by artists such as and John Van Hamersveld. Griffin himself did a lot of artwork for the Dead, including the cover art for (fig. 3) and several poster designs for the band.13 Probably the biggest name in surf art was John Van Hamersveld, who was also

Griffin’s friend and surfing buddy. Hamersveld, and in turn the style of surf art as a whole,

referenced ideas of appropriation of pop culture imagery and digital manipulation which can be

traced back to the rise in popularity of pop art in the 50’s.14 He also used large flat blocks of

color, such as in his poster for Endless Summer (fig.4), which is one of the most famous surf art

graphics to this day. In the end, surf art was attempting to do something very similar to the gig

posters of the time in that they were trying to represent an experience or a feeling. By using flat

blocks of color, they attempted to express the feeling of the experience in its simplest, rawest

form. For the gig poster artists it was about the concert experience, while for surf artists it was

about the feeling of catching and riding a more literal kind of wave.

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary print artist who originally made his name as a street

artist. He has combined aspects of surf art and pop art with the loadedness of Russian

propaganda. He is also well known for his use of mostly appropriated iconography and

symbolism, twisted and manipulated to offer a very conscious satire of modern society,

capitalism, and government among other issues. I find myself referencing the style he uses for

portraiture quite frequently, as it lends itself well to multilayer relief printing. For this particular

project, I am very interested in how he handles the backgrounds of his fine art pieces such as

Defend Dignity (fig.5), where he uses a mix of collaged prints and spray paint stencils with the

foreground image printed over top of the collage. To him this technique may be more accurately

13 Ibid. 14 Vila, Benito. "The Endless Summer of John Van Hamersveld, Artist and Puzzle Master." PleaseKillMe. February 21, 2020. Accessed April 24, 2021. https://pleasekillme.com/john-van-hamersveld/. Cousens 10 described as decollage, as it is representative of the natural layering and wear of street art and wheatposted posters from his early days as a street artist.15 I want to use this technique of collaging to represent the layers of depth and complexity in capturing the experience of a live concert, as well as the impermanence of that moment and experience.

I also find myself in conversation with modern Gig Poster artists. Poster artists work with music as inspiration, attempting to represent the live concert experience. One such artist is AJ

Masthay, who has made posters for Dead and Company (a group made up of a few of the remaining living members of the Grateful Dead as well as some younger musicians to fill the gaps) such as Here Comes Sunshine (fig. 6), which was the tour poster for their 2018 summer

tour. Masthay takes a traditional approach to poster making, stating that “what many would

consider posters, [he has] always treated as fine art, bringing materials and techniques

traditionally reserved for a gallery setting into the concert arena. ” 16 We share a similar affection

for the carving and printing process, as he says “in an industry where digital design is considered

best practice, [his] hand carved linoleum block prints have a visual quality which instantly set

[his] work apart from [his] colleagues.” 17 This attention to craft is important to me as well, and

was part of what subconsciously drew me to his work even before I knew about the specifics of

his process. The difference between our processes is that he hand draws his designs in colored

pencil first before photographing it. He then manipulates that photo using digital programs in the

same way that I do before transferring it to a linoleum block. At the end of the day, we are using

the same language of symbols and signifiers that represent the Dead, such as the dancing bears or

the Skull and Roses skeleton. While his goal is to re-animate these symbols for a new generation

15 Fairey, Shepard.”Street Basics” YouTube. December 28, 2013. Accessed April 22, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJfeAvP8xTo. 16 Masthay, AJ. “Bio.” AJ Masthay. Accessed April 14, 2021.https://www.masthaystudios.com/bio. 17 Ibid. Cousens 11 with a fresh take on drawing them, my versions are meant to be more directly tied to the original photographs and artwork, as well as the history that comes along with them.

In addition to Masthay, there are many other artists making work around themes of pop-culture and music. Among the contemporary artists I am looking at are Dan Mumford, Zeb

Love, Luke Martin, Mike Dubois, and Owen Murphy, who all make classic rock, psychedelic rock, and jam band gig posters. Contemporary pop-culture galleries such as the one Masthay himself is represented by, Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, feature artwork such as gig posters and alternative movie posters which have made their way from popular culture into the fine art scene. While these artists and galleries are shifting towards a more digitally illustrated and printed method of making, I want to look backwards to a time where craft was respected over reproducibility.

By attempting to represent this visually, I want to share my appreciation and enthusiasm about music with others. While knowledge of the band may be a barrier to completely understanding everything about this piece, I want it to say something to anyone who takes the time to interact with it. For people who are already fans, I hope they will be able to pick apart the collage to find all the different references I have hidden. For people who may not be as familiar, I hope they can find something that inspires them to listen to music they may not have heard before, or want to dig deeper into something as complex and layered as the live music scene. Cousens 12

Figures

Figure 1

Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse, ‘66 Avalon Ballroom Poster, 1966, Letterpress Print on Vellum, 14” x 20” Cousens 13

Figure 2

Alton Kelley, Skull and Roses Album Cover, 1971, Letterpress Printed, 12.375” x 24.75” Cousens 14

Figure 3

Rick Griffin, Aoxomoxoa Album Cover, Letterpress Printed, 12.375” x 12.375” Cousens 15

Figure 4

John Van Hamersveld, The Endless Summer, 1966, Silkscreen, 29.5” x 40” Cousens 16

Figure 5

Shepard Fairey, Defend Dignity, 2020, Silkscreen and Mixed Media Collage on Paper, 30” x 41” Cousens 17

Figure 6

AJ Masthay, Here Comes Sunshine, 2018, Letterpress Print, 18” x 24” Cousens 18

Works Cited

Boyd-Smith, Steve. “‘The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-1971.’” Journal of American History 97, no. 1 (June 2010): 123–27. doi:10.2307/jahist/97.1.123.

Cushway, Phil. Art of the Dead. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press, 2012.

Fairey, Shepard.”Street Basics” YouTube. December 28, 2013. Accessed April 22, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJfeAvP8xTo.

Fick, Bill, and Beth Grabowski. Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2015.

Gans, David. 2009. Conversations With The Dead. Da Capo Press.

Garcia, Jerry, Charles Reich, and Jann Wenner. 2009. Garcia. Da Capo Press.

Grateful Dead Biography." Grateful Dead. Accessed April 15, 2021. https://www.dead.net/biography.

Masthay, AJ. “Bio.” AJ Masthay. Accessed April 14, 2021. https://www.masthaystudios.com/bio.

McNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip: The inside History of the Grateful Dead. New York: Broadway Books, 2001.

"MoMA Learning." MoMA. Accessed April 16, 2021. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/expressionism/.

Vila, Benito. "The Endless Summer of John Van Hamersveld, Artist and Puzzle Master." PleaseKillMe. February 21, 2020. Accessed April 24, 2021. https://pleasekillme.com/john-van-hamersveld/. Cousens 19

Thesis Image Checklist

1. Grateful Dead- Live 2021 Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper 36” x 24”

2. The Live Dead Experience 2021 Installation Documentation

3. Grateful Dead- Live 2021 Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper 36” x 24”

4. Grateful Dead- LP 2021 Multilayer Relief Print 36” x 24”

5. Grateful Dead- Live Detail: Jerry 2021 Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper 36” x 24”

6. Grateful Dead- Live Detail: Brent 2021 Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper 36” x 24” Cousens 20

Images of Work

1. Grateful Dead- Live, 2021 Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper, 36” x 24”

2. The Live Dead Experience, 2021, Installation Documentation Cousens 21

3. Grateful Dead- Live, 2021, Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper, 36” x 24”

4. Grateful Dead- LP, 2021 Multilayer Relief Print, 36” x 24” Cousens 22

5. Grateful Dead- Live, Detail: Jerry, 2021, Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper, 36” x 24”

6. Grateful Dead- Live, Detail: Brent, 2021 Multilayer Relief Print Over Collaged Screen Prints on Hand Dyed Paper, 36” x 24” Cousens 23

Artist Bio

James Cousens is a printmaker currently in his senior year at Maine College of Art, where he will earn a BFA majoring in Printmaking in May, 2021. He uses his prints as a way to amplify the things he is interested in. His subject matter varies quite a lot as well, but often revolves around music and emotion through the use of the elements of color and shape. He has done numerous reductive relief figures and portraits, using his color choices to convey the tone of the piece. His pallets are inspired by music and its emotional tone as well. Working in a style that lends itself well to reductive relief and screen printing, he translates three dimensional forms into two dimensional blocks of color. These colors make up a range of values which then give the illusion of space in his prints. To accomplish this, the artist studies how light interacts with form by using strong directional lighting on his model. Cousens comes from a digital background, but has found love for printmaking because of the result of the process- the ability to put his hand into his work while still maintaining control. Cousens 24

Artist Statement

This past year, music has made its way to the forefront of my work. While it has always played a part in my studio process, informing my color choices and palettes, I have started to focus on the emotional effect of experiencing music and the people who make it, specifically the

60’s jam band the Grateful Dead. My installation consists of two large poster-sized prints, both featuring the same multilayer relief print of several members of the Grateful Dead in concert; one is printed on top of a collage made up of torn screen prints, and the other over a solid flat of color. By displaying these pieces together, I am comparing the impermanence of live performance with the reproducibility of studio records through the use of appropriated symbols which are representative of different parts of the concert experience. This visual sampling is the result of extensive research into the Dead’s tour scene, as well as growing up listening to colorful stories told by my parents who got to live it for themselves. I aim to pay reverence to the band themselves, as well as the artists and poster designers that created the visual language of expressive and psychedelic art. Cousens 25

CV

Education

2017- 2021

Maine College of Art. Portland ME - BFA, Majoring in Printmaking

Exhibitions / Sales 2021

MECA Made Sale, Maine College of Art- Portland, ME

2020 Maine College of Art Holiday Sale- Maine College of Art- Portland, ME Window Shop Pop-Up Sale, And Head Gallery, Maine College of Art- Portland ME Maine College of Art BFA / Merit Show, Maine College of Art- Portland, ME Get Out The Vote, Portland Public Library,-Portland, ME Be Seen, Portland City Hall- Portland, ME

2019 Maine College of Art BFA Show, Maine College of Art - Portland, ME Maine College of Art Merit Show, Maine College of Art - Portland, ME

2018 Maine College of Art BFA Show, Maine College of Art - Portland, ME Maine College of Art Merit Show, Maine College of Art - Portland, ME Through the Little Door Exhibition, Maine College of Art - Portland, ME

2017 FY-IN- Field Guide to a New World, Final Exhibition, Maine Audubon Society - Portland, ME