Album Cover Hall of Fame - Album Cover Art Interviews and News

Cover Story - "Dark Side of the Moon" by Hipgnosis

Cover Story for May 25, 2007

Subject: Dark Side of the Moon – an illustration produced by Hipgnosis (Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, producers, with design by Storm Thorgerson and illustration by George Hardie) for the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1973 Harvest/Capitol Records release titled “Dark Side of the Moon”.

This album is Pink Floyd’s commercial-meets-conceptual equinox. No.1 on the Billboard album charts in March of 1973, this recording went on to achieve a record 741 weeks (or 14 whole years) on the ‘Top 200 Albums’ chart. It is the longest-charting album ever (beating its nearest rival by five years), with well over forty million copies sold to date (one of the top-five best-selling LPs ever).

The album has been re-released a number of times on CD and in collector’s edition vinyl record packages. The 1992 remaster was sold as the “20th Anniversary” box set and then, in 2002, a 5.1 channel Dolby Surround version - mixed from the original studio tapes – was released as the “30th Anniversary” edition. In 2003, a collector’s vinyl version of the 30th Anniversary package was released which included reprints of the original poster, stickers, and Storm Thorgerson’s new 30th Anniversary artwork.

In the words of Storm Thorgerson –

“The idea itself was cunningly cobbled from a standard physics textbook, which illustrated light passing through a prism. Of significance was the simple, elegant layout against black - standard textbook illustrations did not do this. Also important to the art direction, was the fortuitous decision to listen to Rick Wright, who suggested we do something clean, elegant and graphic, not photographic – not a figurative picture.  And then to connect this idea to their live show, which was famous for its lighting, and subsequently to connect this to ambition and madness, themes Roger was exploring in the lyrics… hence the prism, the triangle and the pyramids.

Of minor significance was the complete appropriateness of the artwork to the record. The design is simply a mechanical tint lay, which means we drew outline shapes, black on white, and indicated what colours were to appear when printed. The prisms were airbrushed black on white and reversed by the printer.

The refracting glass prism referred to Floyd light shows - consummate use of light in the concert setting. Its outline is triangular and triangles are symbols of ambition, and are redolent of pyramids, both cosmic and mad in equal measure, all these ideas touching on themes in the lyrics. The joining of the spectrum extending round the back cover and across the gatefold inside was seamless like the segueing tracks on the album, whilst the opening heartbeat was represented by a repeating blip in one of the colours.

Pink Floyd. in their infinite wisdom, perused our 7 complex detailed roughs for this cover in a drab basement room at Abbey Road - submissions over which we at Hipgnosis had toiled for weeks - but managed to decide within 3 minutes which one they liked. No amount of cajoling would get them to consider any other contender, nor endure further explanation of the prism, or how exactly it might look. ‘That's it’, they said in unison, ‘we’ve got to get back to real work’, and returned forthwith to the studio upstairs.

‘It all connects, somehow, somewhere.’. says Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, ‘We knew that the package – the record and the cover and everything together – was going to be far, far stronger than anything we had done before.’

To look back now and reflect upon how the actual artwork itself had no colour, being just a tint lay, and how the spectrum was missing a colour anyway, and how the whole design was only cobbled from a standard physics textbook diagram (albeit cunningly), and how there was another album called “Dark Side Of The Moon” (released in 1972 by British blues-rock band Medicine Head, which didn’t sell well at all! - MG) only a year previously, all of this just goes to show how such matters pale if a design feels 'appropriate'. How fitting it is to be fitting!"

-- Storm Thorgerson (via MediaBitch, his PR firm – thanks to Robin Headlee for her help in gathering materials for this Cover Story)

The “other” ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, just for fun…

About Storm Thorgerson (again, in his own words, in the third-person) –

“Born, if that's the word, in Potter’s Bar Middlesex, in 1944. BA - Honors in English and Philosophy from Leicester University (63 - 66) and finally an MA in film and TV from the Royal College of Art, London (66 - 69). Formed Hipgnosis in 1968 with Aubrey Powell (Po), a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography and working mainly in the music business designing album covers for many rock 'n' roll bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, 10cc, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett and Styx, amongst others. Started a series of books on album cover art with Roger Dean called "Album Cover Album' and, with Hipgnosis, wrote and designed ‘Walk Away Rene’ in 1978 and ‘The Goodbye Look’ in 1982, about their own stuff.

In 1983 Storm, along with Po and Peter Christopherson, formed Green Back Films and embarked on producing numerous rock videos including material for Paul Young, Yes, Nik Kershaw, Robert Plant, Interferon, Nona Hendryx, Big Country and many others and also long forms for Barry Gibb (Voyager), Yumi Matsutoya (Train of Thought), and Channel Q - a heavy metal compilation for Polygram Records. Green Back and its partners went up in smoke in 1985.

Storm went solo (because he had to) and continued making videos ("Learning To Fly" for Pink Floyd won "best director" at Billboard), and tried his hand at commercials (Tennant’s 'One Great Thing' won Golden Rose in Scotland). He continued designing album covers for Pink Floyd, Catherine Wheel, Alan Parsons, Anthrax, amongst others, and branched out into documentaries, making "Art Of Tripping" for Ch 4 in 1993, a two part exploration of the connections between drugs and artists. In 1994 Storm directed six short films for Pink Floyd which were screened at concerts during their world tour, and also an hour long science documentary on the Hubble Constant for Equinox called "The Rubber Universe". In 1997 he compiled a book of his images for Pink Floyd called 'Mind Over Matter' published by Sanctuary Books. And in 97/98 he wrote and directed an hour long documentary for Discovery channel about the (non) existence of Aliens subtitled "Are We Alone?" (Or was it We Are Alone).

Storm continued to design album covers (Phish, Ian Dury, Cranberries, Pink Floyd, Catherine Wheel, Alan Parsons, Ween etc etc), to execute assorted graphics for DVDs, websites, programs, T-shirts and so on, and to direct the occasional film. He has written and designed several books including "100 Best Album Covers" (Dorling Kindersley) and "Eye Of The Storm" (Sanctuary Books). Thorgerson died in 2013, but his studio continues to produce great examples of album cover art.

Artwork Copyright 1973-present by Storm Thorgerson/Hipgnosis - All Rights Reserved. All other text and images Copyright 2007-present by Mike Goldstein - All Rights Reserved.

 

Cover Story - "Led Zeppelin II" by David Juniper

Cover Story for May 18, 2007

Subject: Led Zeppelin II – an illustration and limited-edition print created by artist David Juniper for the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1969 Atlantic Records release titled “Led Zeppelin II”.

Led Zeppelin II was released in October, 1969, and became the first LZ album to go to #1 on the U.S. album charts, unseating “Abbey Road” by The Beatles for the top spot. It was the first recording with engineer Eddie Kramer (famous then for his work with Hendrix) and his expertise, combined with their desire to “keep it raw” in the studio, produced a record that influenced every heavy metal/hard rock record (and act) that followed.

Amazingly, this record took 8 months to record, since the band was touring the U.S. and the U.K. most of the year, and so they’d go to the studio during breaks to lay down tracks whenever possible. Although they could not spend that much time writing new songs, their re-workings of the rock and blues standards (“Bring It On Home”, the hit “Whole Lotta Love”, and others) let them add the Zeppelin touches – guitar solos, extended drum solos, pounding bass lines – that turned these tracks into what would become “classic Led Zeppelin”. Robert Plant was able to exhibit his song-writing prowess, however, on new tunes such as “Ramble On” and “What Is and What Should Never Be”, and it is pretty obvious that Kramer and Jimmy Page twirled many a knob on the mixing board creating the psychedelic center section of “Whole Lotta Love” (creating a 6-minute hit song during a period where 3-minute hits were the norm).

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album #75 on their list of “Greatest Albums of All Time”.

Interesting LZII trivia –
The band opened many of their live shows in 1971 and 1972 with "Immigrant Song" followed immediately by "Heartbreaker", while during subsequent tours it was often played as an encore. "Heartbreaker" and "Communication Breakdown" were the only songs to be played live during every year that the band toured. However, on commercial radio, "Heartbreaker" typically segues into the next song on the album, "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)," However, they would never be played this way during live concerts because (apparently) Jimmy Page did not like playing "Living Loving Maid".

The making of Led Zeppelin II, in the words of the artist, David Juniper -

“In the late sixties in London, anything seemed possible!! I was employed at the time in a boring Art Director’s job, so I got a lot of satisfaction out of moonlighting on speculative stuff.

The music of "Led Zeppelin I" had blown me away and so, on spec, I mocked up a fold-out design for the second album and took it to (Zeppelin’s manager) Peter Grant and Micky Most at Rak Records. I had a few friends starting to get into the music industry and they helped to point me in their direction.

The combination of collage/photography and airbrush illustration was groundbreaking for me, because the traditional airbrush technique was very tricky, especially when compared to today’s digital equivalents. The cover imagery was completely experimental and I liked the combination of the abstract ghostly Zeppelin shape along with a faded sepia WW1 photo of German Aviators.

All the faces were replaced or altered (sunglasses & beards on some of the pilots!). In amongst the four band members (airbrushed in from a publicity photograph) are Miles Davis (or was it Blind Willie Johnson?), a girlfriend/muse of Andy Warhol (perhaps Mary Woronov) and the astronaut Neil Armstrong. The original photo of the Jasta Division of the WW1 German Air Force came from an old book about the ‘Sopwith Camel’, which was a famous British bi-plane from WW1.

I used bright inks to make the illustration parts really pop. I just presented it to the group and they went for it, with only a few changes to the inside spread (see below). The outside cover went through as it was proposed.

The inside image is full-on psychedelia, in contrast to the original idea discussed, which had a Zeppelin flying past the Statue of Liberty. They did not want something on the inside with a similar feel to the outside, so I just went for a colourful painting as a complete contrast to the outside. I remembered a documentary film of 1920/30's German architecture and thought this approach would give the image a heavy rock/blues feel.

Anyway, from that point forward, the group’s management was all very friendly and used me on other covers for some of their other artists, including Donovan and Lulu. Another great treat was to be asked down to Olympic Studios in Barnes while they worked on the recording, but what pleased me the most was that cover was nominated at the 68' Grammy Awards!

About David Juniper (again, in his words) –

I grew up in Epson Surrey UK, as did Jimmy Page, and we went to art schools in the same area. This area was a great place for music fans, and I would have liked to have taken the time to learn the guitar, but decided instead to concentrate on drawing and painting. I still wish I had done both.

I have been a professional Artist and Designer for 40 years including stints in Ad Agencies, a Studio (Wurlitzer) partnership and freelance illustrating/designing. My Web Site contains loads of images www.davidjuniper.com if you’d like to see what I’m up to these days.

Artwork and photographs Copyright 1969-present by David Juniper - All Rights Reserved. All other images and text Copyright 2007-present by Mike Goldstein - All Rights Reserved.

Cover Story - "Lynyrd Skynyrd Road Series - Blue" by Michael Cartellone

Cover Story - Subject - "Lynyrd Skynyrd Road Series - Blue" - a painting and limited-edition print created by artist Michael Cartellone and used in the CD booklet of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 2005 release on Universal Music’s UMTV records titled "Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Greatest Hits".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally published on May 11, 2007 by Mike Goldstein

Greetings – As those of you who may have visited my old RockPoP Gallery site and have read my past interview columns know, my gallery's focus to try and elevate the status within the fine art world of people who earn their living creating the artwork and photography that grace your favorite album/CD covers and other music-related promotions and packaging. All of the artwork and photographs featured to this point were created by talented individuals who make their living on “the graphics side” of the business. This story, though, is quite special, as it features the work of someone who has earned his fame as a much-praised studio/tour drummer (and continues to enjoy a fantastic career as the drummer for one of the most popular musical acts of all time, 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Lynyrd Skynyrd).

That’s right – this issue we’re featuring the fine art of Michael Cartellone, who’s recorded and toured with an amazing list of acts, covering all genres of music - John Fogerty, Peter Frampton, John Wetton, Freddie Mercury, Cher, Adrian Belew, Accept and, my favorite, multi-platinum “supergroup” Damn Yankees.

As busy as he is with his musical career, Michael’s first love was painting, and while his career kept him on the road constantly, he found himself relaxing and refocusing his energies by painting in his hotel rooms and on the tour bus. As it is that he works to create hyper-realistic images of life on the road (hence, his most recent prints, which are used to illustrate the booklet included with “Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Greatest Hits” - the 30th anniversary compilation on UMTV records - are named the “Road Series”), I’m not quite sure just how he relaxes while he works, but let’s ask him to give us some insight…

In the words of the artist, Michael Cartellone - 

“I’m very proud of the Road Series Paintings. The three years (during three World Tours - 2001, 2002 and 2003) I spent painting the five canvases were very satisfying creatively. I was being fed musically at night, playing with Skynyrd, and artistically during the day, painting in my hotel rooms. I enjoyed this so much that I can’t imagine touring without painting now. In fact, this year I’m working on a painting of a carousel, which has been an idea stored in the back of my head for a dozen years.

So, when my friend Michael Goldstein asked me to contribute a piece to his interview series, I thought I’d focus on one of the Road Series Paintings – “Blue”.

Blue is easily the most personal painting of the five, as it illustrates my working perspective (which no one else shares) of Life On The Road. Only I see that view, day in and day out while on tour. So, I thought it would be interesting to share it with others. Any drummer will tell you, when sitting at their kit they feel a comfort zone. It’s one constant for us, in an ever changing, city to city, venue to venue environment. I feel this comfort when I look at Blue.

Blue also gives away some of the “behind the scenes” attributes of the Road Series paintings: the ever-present half an orange (for sticky hands to hold drumsticks), the bottle of Gatorade, the tape on the pedal board for a little bit of traction and last, but not least, the homage to all my drum endorsement companies.

I will say that of all five paintings, the hardest thing and most time consuming to paint was the cymbal in Blue. I spent a month alone on that cymbal. Upon close inspection, you’ll notice the ridges changing color throughout. This effect required a lot of attention and many, many coats of paint to achieve the final result. I knew I would be happy with that cymbal once finished, but I honestly was surprised how involved it was to paint. I love this painting and it’s my favorite of the five.

Looking back on the Road Series paintings, I couldn’t be happier that they were how I officially kicked off my art career. Even though I had shown and sold work through the years, these paintings enabled me to enter “the Art World” with a real splash. Doing so, it enabled me to use my art, to paint about my life in music. It’s the perfect example of two halves making a whole.”

Michael Cartellone
May 2007

Lynyrd Skynyrd Greatest Hits – released June, 2005, on the Universal Music TV label, UK.
This 'greatest hits' package brings together some of the finest moments from Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd's back catalogue. This two CD set acts as the perfect introduction into the band's mix of hard rock, blues, and country and features 30 of their biggest hits, including “Freebird”, “Sweet Home Alamba”, “What’s Your Name”, “Gimme Three Steps”, and many others.

Formed by high school friends in Jacksonville, FL in 1964 and adopting the name Lynyrd Skynyrd from the name (Leonard Skinner) of an antagonistic high school PE teacher, the core of the band at the time - singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Gary Rossington, guitarist Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson, and drummer Bob Burns – release their first single in 1968.

Their debut LP - 'Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd' is released and goes gold. In November of that year, they opened for The Who on their 'Quadrophenia' tour. Al Kooper then discovers Lynyrd Skynyrd in an Atlanta club and signs them to his Sounds Of The South label. From that point forward, the band released a series of hit singles, charting with “Sweet Home Alabama” in 1974, then with “Saturday Night Special”, followed by “Freebird” (from their debut record, but re-released as a single in 1975).

During the next 30 years, the band recorded and toured continuously (including a tour with the Rolling Stones), with musicians moving regularly in and out of the band, and a series of tragedies – culminating with the horrible plane crash in late 1977 that killed 4 band members (including founding member Ronnie Van Zandt) and injured many of the others – only served to motivate the surviving members to continue to play, ultimately re-grouping in 1987 (with Ronnie’s brother Johnny on vocals) and continue producing Skynyrd music, bringing their unique brand of Southern Rock to good ole’ boys everywhere to this day. In 2006, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which featured a performance by many of the musicians who had played with the band over the years.

Michael Cartellone bio –
Michael Cartellone was born June 7, 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio. He began painting at the age of four and drumming at the age of nine. Music and art would be a simultaneous learning adventure throughout his childhood.

Michael's music career began at the age of 11 when he played his first bar. After many years on the club circuit, he moved to New York City when he was 22. After playing with former Roxy Music/UK keyboardist Eddie Jobson, and then former Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw, Michael found himself a member of the multi-platinum selling band Damn Yankees. This was the springboard for a career that has included recording and touring with John Fogerty, Peter Frampton, John Wetton, Freddie Mercury, Cher, Adrian Belew, Accept and, since 1998, drumming for 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Michael's art career has included New York-area gallery shows, two shows in suburban Washington, D.C. and dozens of paintings sold to individual collectors.

UPDATE - To see more of Michael's artwork - paintings, prints and hand-embellished drum heads - please visit his site at http://www.michaelcartellone.com/about-michael.php and his collection available through The Wentworth Gallery - https://www.wentworthgallery.com/cartellone.html 

Artwork/photographs Copyright 2006-present by Michael Cartellone - All Rights Reserved. All other text and images Copyright 2007-present by Mike Goldstein - All RIghts Reserved

Cover Story - Green Day's "Insomniac" by Winston Smith

Cover Story - Subject - "God Told Me To Skin You Alive" - a mixed-media collage created by artist Winston Smith and used on the cover of Green Day's 1995 release on Warner/Reprise records titled "Insomniac".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Day – Insomniac – with artwork by Winston Smith

Originally published May 4, 2007 by Mike Goldstein

"Insomniac" was the fourth studio album from Bay-area punk rock band Green Day. The follow-up to the very successful predecessor "Dookie", it was released in October 1995 and although it went to #2 on the U.S. charts (selling 2 million + records), its slightly darker approach to song-writing and lyrics kept it from spawning any mega-hit singles (as their previous record did in droves).

Their traditional punk roots kept the songs tight and fast, but their eagerness to experiment with some "punk-pop" tunesmithing, less-traditional chord progressions, all coupled with a more hard-rock-oriented studio mix, produced a recording that was a bit more tame (but, in my opinion, more musically interesting) than the more balls-to-the-walls approach of their previous releases. While their music may have been a bit less raw, their selection of Winston Smith as the illustrator for the record's packaging could not have been more punk. With a pedigree that included works for the Dead Kennedys that were banned in some countries and lambasted by the Religious Right, Mr. Smith found a group of young collaborators eager to create a cover that would stick a pin through the eyelid of their fan base.

Let Winston explain, in his own words... 

"I met (Green Day drummer) Tre (Cool) when he lived up in Northern California. One day a couple years later he gave me a call and asked if I'd do a record cover for the band he was in, Green Day. Without knowing anything much about them I said, 'Sure.' And the next thing I knew, Tre and Billie Joe (Armstrong) - I think Mike (Dirnt) was out of town that day - were sitting in my studio pouring over photocopies of almost everything I'd ever created. The image that grabbed them the most was the pair of figures appropriated from Jan van Eyck's 'Wedding Portrait of 1434', in the picture 'Til Death Do Us Part' (page 17 of his book 'Artcrime'), so I used that as the nucleus for my composition.

My title for the piece, 'God Told Me to Skin You Alive', was a reference to a comic book-style religious tract that Biafra and I used for the fold-out poster included with the first Dead Kennedys' album, 'Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables'. This phrase was also Biafra's first line on side one of that album. (My cat, 911, now wears it on his collar tag...) Bill instantly got the reference the moment I showed it to him. He asked how long it took me to create and I said that, not counting the two weeks prior which were consumed with locating and high-grading hundreds of images for the winnowing-out process, I'd spent the last 38 hours working on the assembly of the composition. He asked me how it was possible for me to stay awake that long and I said, "It's easy for me. I'm an insomniac".

Interestingly, the original working title for the album was to be "Tightwad Hill". I don't know if my remarks inspired the final title of their record, but if not, then it's a weird coincidence.

When the Green lads were examining the new cover art I'd created for their album they noticed that there were two skulls in the composition. I told them there were in fact three skulls, one for each band member. They couldn't locate the third skull until I held the picture flat and pointed out that by looking at it from that oblique angle, what previously appeared to be a blurry piece of driftwood protruding from the fire came into focus as a perfect human skull.

This distended skull was originally from the 1533 painting by Hans Holbein the Younger titled "The French Ambassadors". It is an anamorphic image; that is, it changes shape when viewed at an angle. Trompe-l'ceil art of this kind was popular during the Renaissance. I have somewhat re-adjusted it in order to show how it would look from the proper angle. This re-formed version appears in the Tijuanna No! Contra-Revolucion Avenue composition (Ed. note - see page 52 of "Artcrime").

Winston Smith Bio –
(Portions excerpted from the winstonsmith.com Web site)

Winston Smith (born Patrick Morey in 1952 in Oklahoma City, OK) is an artist armed with razor blade and a fiendish wit. His modus operandi since the 1970's has been to kidnap "innocent" images from the pages of vintage magazines and then to diabolically glue them into compromising or politically revealing positions in his surreal collage landscapes. "Perhaps the most vibrant collage maestro since Max Ernst," wrote popular underground artist Frank Kozik, who goes on to credit Winston with being "single-handedly responsible for an entire generation's graphic style." Smith's name is a reference to the character of the same name in George Orwell's novel "1984"(Smith was the main character and a clerk at the Ministry of Truth, where he worked on re-writing history books to appear in line with the current Government’s portrayal of historical events).

After studying in Italy, Smith moved to San Francisco in the 1970s, working primarily in the road crews of Bay-area rock bands such as Santana and The Tubes. In the mid-70's Smith, along with fellow artist Jayed Scotti, wrote, illustrated and published a satirical magazine titled "Fallout", while also producing and posting flyers for non-existant gigs in San Francisco (just to confuse the heck out of people). 

To illustrate an article in Fallout about organized religion and our obsession with money, Smith created a shocking 3D work fashioned from a real crucifix covered with money (titled "IDOL"). After a color photocopy of this work was submitted to a local art show, a friend of the Dead Kennedy's leader Jello Biafra told him of this work and asked for samples of this and other works. This led to a long-standing series of collaborations with Biafra, the Dead Kennedys and their "Alternative Tentacles" label, creating logos (the famous DK and Alternative Tentacles logos), CD covers, and numerous related works.

Since then Smith, once known only to DK fans and the punk underground cognoscenti, has been gaining popularity in mainstream culture. He's had one-man shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London and Rome. His debut book, "Act Like Nothing's Wrong", was published in 1994 by Last Gasp of San Francisco was favorably reviewed a wide variety of regional and national magazines. His eighteen month (1995-97) sojourn as illustrator for SPIN magazine's "Topspin" political page further brought his work to national attention as did his award for "Best Cover Illustration" from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in 1997. On the musical front, his bizarre "Insomniac" alum cover for the popular neo-punk band Green Day was voted a favorite in a 1996 readers poll in Rolling Stone Magazine.

A slightly-altered version of one of Winston’s most iconic compositions (“the Money Tree” used as a back cover for the Biafra/D.O.A. album "Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors”) wound up later being used as the cover for the New Yorker Magazine (May, 2000 issue).  His works have also appeared in Playboy, Spin, Wired, AdBusters, La Repubblica, Juxtapoz, Flipside, Maximumrockandroll, Red Herring, Vice, Utne Reader, and many other publications.

Two decades down the line, Winston's style continues to not only to have political punch, but it has also developed an almost classical surrealism. His recent album cover for Tijuana No!'s - Contra Revolucion Avenue has been called the collage equivalent of a cross between Picasso's "Guernica" and the social realism of a Diego Rivera WPA-era mural. Another fine example of his new style is Apocalypse Wow!, a full page spread commissioned by SPIN magazine that depicts a swirling end-of-the-world populated with a mind-blowing array of whimsical images from sword-carrying angels to flying poodles.

The growing demand for Winston's humorous and controversial collage illustrations prompted the release of his second and third books, "Artcrime" and "All Riot on the Western Front", and the production of his first-ever series of collectible archival prints. The jumbo scale and fine quality of this new print series hugely expands the already powerful visual impact of Winston's work. Intricate collages, formerly seen only in miniature on CD covers or in newsprint, take on a whole new life when blown up and printed on archival papers. We have arrived at the threshold of the twenty first century. It's time to call off the art police. The work of mischievous art-criminal Winston Smith is finally being brought to full color justice.

In 2006, Smith married artist Chick Fontaine, with Bay-area icon Wavy Gravy performing the ceremony.

All images Copyright 1995-present Winston Smith - All rights reserved. All other text and images Copyright 2007-present Mike Goldstein - All Rights Reserved