Grateful Dead

There's a first for everything, and during spring break of 1980, when I was 21 years old, and listening to pretty much nothing but GD, I sat at the dining room table of the house I had to myself (roomates all went away and I stayed) and did a watercolor-pen & ink tribute to my favorite band. I was listening to "Skull & Roses" a LOT, and was just jazzed over that cover art (Bear's Choice too). I guess you could say those covers were my inspiration for this, with the imagery, typography, color schematics, etc. But at the same time I wanted it to be "mine" as far as style goes. I did so much art back then (art major) and had been into the band pretty heavily for over a year, but had yet to do anything devoted to the Golden Road of Unlimited visual appreciation. I took a photo of this art and dropped it into photoshop, adjusted the levels and that's it. It's raw, I had no set plan, it just kind of went in it's own direction. As it should. And lord only knows how many times I had to walk back to the living room, lift the needle on the stereo, and drop it on Wharf Rat to hear it over and over and over. (oh yeah, the "Not Fade Away" that segues out of it didn't hurt matters either). : ) -Tom Mitt