Los Lobos Poster

Years ago I did a lot posters for Bill Graham Presents. While BGP had some serious downsides — they impose a terrible, onerous contract on their visual artists, and the pay is not great — there were also some upsides. For one thing, you get to do a high quality litho print for a band, and often it’s a band that you may feel has meant a lot to you over the years. In my case, that has meant bands like the Pixies, Elvis Costello, Calexico and Lucinda Williams. It’s also nice that when I go see a band at the Fillmore, my images are all over the place. Once, I was backstage hanging out with the band Luna in the green room, and there on the wall were 5 of my posters!

But another great thing about working for BGP back in the day was working with their Art Director, Arlene Owseichik, one of the best ADs I’ve ever gotten to work with. She’s got the vision, the humor, and the collaborative spirit the job requires, and on top of that she’s just a wonderful person and a dear friend. So when Arlene called, having come out of retirement to do a poster for the Bill Graham Birthday event the Fillmore (in fact, it’s an even she works each year), I happily agreed for the chance to work with my old friend again.

The poster is for Los Lobos, a great band I used to listen to a lot back in the 90s. It features my beloved cat, Vantablack, who at the time of the assignment had recently begun exploring my backyard garden. Wouldn’t it be nice if cats would garden with shovels?