Alton Kelley and Psychedelic Posters

One of the “Big Five” of the San Fransisco Poster Artists, Alton Kelley was a core component to the circle of artists that surrounded the Psychedelic Art of Rock n’ Roll of West Coast America.

Born in Connecticut, he found his first creative outlet hand painting and airbrushing motorcycle components. While not as talented as some of the other artists in drafting talent, he made up for it with his key eye for layout and composition.

Partnering with Stanley Mouse gave rise to the majority of the works accredited to Alton Kelley. The pair inspired one another and Kelley’s drafting skills eventually improved enough that the two would often work in tandem on one piece at the same time (Mouse was right-handed and Kelley left-handed).

Recounts of their time in the studio together was most often working together with very few words between them. There was an uncanny ability for the two to just understand what needed to be done. Hours would pass at the San Fransisco Library or in their Studio as they found image resources among the books or creating posters for the next week’s show.

Two of the most iconic images of the portfolio would be the “Skulls and Roses” for the Grateful Dead and the “Beatle with Wings” for Journey. Although Kelley would readily admit that they were often feverishly smashing imagery together with little forethought and relying mainly on intuition for the compositions.

Kelley would continue creating art throughout his life and would develop his skills in airbrush; painting pictures of motorcycles and custom street cars until his death in 2008.

His work has a rougher edge to the images compared to a majority of the other posters of this era and that appeals to my aesthetic tastes. Perhaps it is the structure of being infatuated with the mechanisms of engines and motorcycles that gives rise to the combination of fluidity and structure.