Alton Kelley (June 17, 1940 – June 1, 2008) was an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

known for his

psychedelic art Psychedelic art (also known as psychedelia) is art, graphics or visual displays related to or inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. The word ...

, in particular his designs for 1960s rock concert posters and album covers. Along with artists

Rick Griffin Richard Alden "Rick" Griffin (June 18, 1944 – August 18, 1991) was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. As a contributor to the underground comix movement, his work appeared regularly in ...

Stanley Mouse Stanley George Miller (born October 10, 1940), better known as Mouse or Stanley Mouse, is an American artist who is notable for his 1960s psychedelic rock concert poster designs and album covers for the Grateful Dead, Journey, and other bands. P ...

Victor Moscoso Victor Moscoso (born July 28, 1936) is a Spanish–American artist best known for producing psychedelic rock posters, advertisements, and underground comix in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first of the rock poster artists of ...

and

Wes Wilson Robert Wesley Wilson (July 15, 1937 – January 24, 2020) was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters. Best known for designing posters for Bill Graham of The Fillmore in San Francisco, he invented a style ...

, Kelley founded the Berkeley Bonaparte distribution agency in order to produce and sell psychedelic poster art. Along with fellow artist Stanley Mouse, Kelley is credited with creating the wings and beetles on all

Journey Journey or journeying may refer to: * Travel, the movement of people between distant geographical locations ** Day's journey, a measurement of distance ** Road trip, a long-distance journey on the road Animals * Journey (horse), a thoroughbred ra ...

album covers as well as the skull and roses image for the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

. Kelley's artwork on the 1971 self-titled live album, ''

'', incorporated a black and white illustration of a skeleton by

Edmund Sullivan Edmund Joseph Sullivan (1869–1933), usually known as E. J. Sullivan, was a British book illustrator who worked in a style which merged the British tradition of illustration from the 1860s with aspects of Art Nouveau. Life Sullivan was th ...

, which originally appeared in a 19th-century edition of the '' Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám''. In 1995, Kelley designed and printed a limited edition poster of

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

to raise money for the Jan Kerouac Benefit Fund. Kelley is also credited for the cover art for the

King's X King's X is an American rock band that originated in 1979 in Springfield, Missouri. They were first called The Edge and later became Sneak Preview before settling on its current name in 1985. The band's current lineup has remained intact for m ...

album '' Ear Candy'' in 1996. He was brought up in Connecticut and worked as a welder there. In 1966-1967, Kelley had his studio at 715 Ashbury (across the street from 'the Grateful Dead house') along with

, and

. He died on June 1, 2008, at the age of 67, after a long illness.

References

External links

documentary film featuring the work of Alton Kelley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelley, Alton 1940 births 2008 deaths Psychedelic artists Artists from Maine American poster artists Album-cover and concert-poster artists People from Houlton, Maine

See also

References

External links