Album Cover Artwork and Designers

Rock Album Covers

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), Blake

Many albums simply use words and photographs of the musicians on their covers, such as the Beatles' Abby Road from 1969 (their eleventh album). In 2017, on our trip to the UK, we visited the Beatles museum in Liverpool, England. One wall was wallpapered with a life-sized copy of the iconic cover photo with the Fab Four strutting in the crosswalk. Even more iconic is the cover for 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles' eighth studio album, designed by British Pop Artist Peter Blake (1932-).

This post will examine cover art from a dozen 20th-century designers.

Face Dances (1981), Blake et.al.

I also love Blake's 1981 design of the "Face Dances" cover of The Who members (by row) -- Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Kenney Jones -- whose portraits were painted by sixteen artists: Bill Jacklin, Tom Phillips, Colin Self, Richard Hamilton; Michael Andrews, Allen Jones, David Inshaw, David Hockney; Clive Barker, R. B. Kitaj, Howard Hodgkin, Patrick Caulfield; Peter Blake, Joe Tilson, Patrick Procktor and David Tindle. It was featured in my April 2020 post entitled, Op & Pop Artists - From Allegorical Renaissance to Modern Day Optical and Kinetic Art.

Grand Illusion (1977),
Mouse Miller

Blank Signature (1965),
Magritte

American artist Stanley "Mouse" Miller (1940-) is famous for his 1960s psychedelic rock album cover designs for the Grateful Dead, Journey, and Styx. His "Grand Illusion" Styx album is a pastiche (imitation) of Belgian Surrealist René Magritte's Blank Signature.

Felix-Wyeth

Get Happy!! (1980),
Barney Bubbles

English graphic artist Barney Bubbles (1942-1983) was born Colin Fulcher. He is called the 'founding father' of album covers. His Elvis Costello and the Attractions' "Get Happy!!" cover reminds me of the project my fifth graders did for my N.C. Wyeth movement lesson, using repetition of neon-colored shapes.

Swans Reflecting Elephants
(1937), Salvador Dali

Osibisa (1971), Roger Dean

English artist Roger Dean (1944-) designed the 1971 album for British afro rock band Osibisa. The elephant head butterflies remind me of Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937) by surrealist Dali (1904-89).

Playground Psychotics (1992), Schenkel

I like the color scheme of the Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention album, Playground Psychotics, which was released in 1992. Designed by Cal Schenkel (1947-), I appreciate his black-and-white drawings of band members and  Zentangle-like doodles (e.g., spirals). This is what I imagine an album cover would look like!

Powderfinger - Golden Rule (2009), Thorgerson

Storm Thorgerson (1944-2013) designed this simple cover for the seventh and final studio album, Golden Rule, by Australian rock band Powderfinger in 2009. Their 2010 album, Sail the Wildest Stretch, also sports a more vivid version of the bird on its cover. Journey also uses a bird symbol on their albums. I wonder if the Australian band chose its name after Neil Young's 1979 song, Powderfinger.

Jazz Album Covers

Tequilla Mockingbird (1979), Glaser

The 1979 Ramsey Lewis cover "Tequilla Mockingbird" was produced under the direction of Paula Scher and John Berg and illustrated by Milton Glaser (1929-2020). I like its simplicity and movement with its bright rainbow colors against a black background. The jagged lettering of the title deconstructs it into the familiar "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Basie and Williams (1956), Martin

Jazz album covers are typically very graphic and often in a red-black-and-white color scheme. The drawings were cartoon-like and usually included musical instruments. Here are covers by David Stone Martin (1913-1992) and Reid Miles (1927-1993). See the link for more of Martin's covers. I love the watercolor touches on this particular cover.

A Swingin' Affair (1963), Reid Miles

This cover for saxophonist Dexter Gordon was designed by Reid Miles. Although it has a photographic portrait of the musician, I love the composition of red against the black background. You can see more at The Album Cover Art at Blue Note Records.

Artsy Album Covers

New Order - Technique (1989), Saville

These last three covers are much more like paintings than album covers. For New Order's Technique album, Peter Saville (1955-) colorized a cherubic garden ornament complete with psychedelic colors. Apparently, it went well with the vibe of this electronic dance band's music. I imagine the cherub playing an invisible air guitar.

Atomic Playboys (1989), HR Giger

Surrealist artist HR Giger's (1940-2014) Atomic Playboys cover was created for guitarist Steve Stevens' (born Steven Bruce Schneider in 1959) first studio album. Its rather gothic design includes a guitar fret. He was Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, who also played for Michael Jackson, Ric Ocasek, Robert Palmer, and others.

The Bleeders (2008), Vaughan Oliver

British graphic designer Vaughan Oliver (1957-2019) produced this cover for the Bleeders in 2008. It reminds me of the works of abstract expressionists, which have been created by many of my favorite artists. It doesn't look like an album cover, but I really like its contrasting colors and white highlights!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I have researching it. Please visit the links, especially the other jazz covers. You may also wish to comment naming your favorite album cover!

My Inspirations for Creating Art

From Fox broadcast at Field of Dreams (8/12/21)

Lately, I have been inspired by what I see on social media, TV, commercial ads, and of course movies. I've even captured images from what is being displayed on my TV using my cellphone. It's overwhelming how many photos I've conveniently stored there. I wonder how the old masters would have used the technology and media of today to capture, store, and manipulate images more readily and without spending hours observing, sketching, and drawing what they saw. Of course, they had to rely much more on their own imagination, models, painting outdoors from nature, and the work of other artists for inspiration.

Paint 3D Landscapes
by Jon Patterson

Producing art can be its own inspiration. Practicing and experimenting with techniques and media provides new ideas and develops new skills. I'm constantly reading, consulting my own library of art books, researching topics and artists online, and journaling about future art posts. I find that my art colleagues and my own brother produce much more art than I do, which inspires me to create more art. I've already completed five new works using Paint 3D. And I'm working on an acrylic portrait of one of my favorite baseball players.

Ballet (after Degas)
Ken Patterson

While planning and preparing to teach art to others, I often get inspired to create my own examples for my students or pull images from online sources. For my pastels class, I tried my hand at reproducing a Degas painting as a way of employing many of the techniques I was intending to share with my students.

Bryce and Friends (2021), Ken Patterson

I am also inspired by things in my own life, including of course my pets. I look forward to our annual trip to Palm Springs and our visits to the California dog parks along the way. Here is a pastel version of a photo I took of my dog and two of his new dog park friends. The gravel surface gave me an opportunity to play with color and texture with a nod to impressionism.

Castle Landscape (2022), Ken Patterson

Sometimes my inspiration is a combination of an example I provided for a class, its rendition created by a student, and the challenge to recreate it in Paint 3D. I included it in my latest 'How To' post.

View from Cedar Butte (2022), Ken Patterson

Probably my favorite source of inspiration is nature. While I love doing portraits, I am learning to love painting landscapes, especially from photos. I plan to do more of these using some of my daughter's photos captured during her visits to Italy and adjacent countries. On our recent hike of the Cedar Butte Trail, I photographed the view from the top and painted it using Microsoft Paint 3D. Pretty good, considering I used a mouse on my desktop PC!

Milo Redwood & Studio

The work of other artists has inspired me in many ways. It inspires many of my blog posts. It's been fun for me to interview local artists and learn what inspires them. I often chat up artists when visiting their studios. I'll even engage with museum curators or volunteers to find out more about specific art exhibitions.

Son of Man (1963), René Magritte

Movies can be another source of inspiration and it's fun to watch for famous art being used in the background sets. I've blogged about that too, as far back as March 2020 with my Movie Art Cameos post. "The Thomas Crown Affair" uses the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a backdrop for its romantic art caper. In it, you will see works by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pablo Picasso, and, of course, René Magritte's "The Son of Man".

The photography can also be pretty impressive. Many of my brother's paintings were done using professional photographic compositions created by my sister-in-law.

So, what inspires you? Living with intentional observation, reading, journaling, sketching, drawing, taking photographs, taking art classes, visiting museums, and experiencing nature will enrich your life and may make you a better artist. If nothing else, it will allow you to appreciate life and share it with others.

Inspirations in Visual Art

What if a light bulb and a soft-serve
ice cream cone had a baby?
You'd get a CFL
(Compact Fluorescent Lamp)
[From the JoyReactor Website]

I'm always looking for inspiration for art projects, lesson plans, and especially what to blog about. Now that I have 136 posts, it is becoming increasingly more challenging to come up with ideas. I had hoped that my readers would comment, asking me to include topics of interest to them. After posting seven Baltics posts of June 2019, I received a request from one of my most avid readers for another in-depth series which resulted in six Art of the Pacific Northwest posts of July 2020.  I continued with Artist Interviews in September of 2020. That suggestion came from a website listing art blog ideas.

Smudgy the Cat from
PawsWithCause

Of late, my inspiration comes from baseball, shelter animals, teaching art to multiple age groups, art museums, and travel. When I visit new cities, I keep an eye out for local art such as sculptures and murals. Movies and other media also provide interest when I see art displayed in scenery, actors playing famous artists, or stolen artwork in the newspaper. It's fun to include Art in the News as part of my monthly elementary school lessons.

Vase of Peonies on a
Small Pedestal (1864),
Édouard Manet

Following the art docent model of the Interurban Center for the Arts, I always include an inspirational work by a famous artist from which to pull an art concept, element, or principle of art. For example, I would use Jackson Pollock for a lesson about LINE. And for Positive-Negative Space I will always turn to Édouard Manet.

Two Crabs (1889), Vincent Van Gogh

My family, friends, and colleagues encourage me to do more art. Museums are always stimulating, especially when I discover another Van Gogh painting or see a Rembrandt in person! Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens heavily influenced both artists. Van Gogh was also influenced by his friend, Paul Gauguin, who encouraged him to paint from his imagination, French realist Jean-François Millet, other Impressionists, and Japanese art. Van Gogh painted Two Crabs in 1889 as an experiment in complementary colors inspired by the color theory of Eugène Delacroix.

In May of 2017, I saw it hanging in The National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square.

Emily's Chicken

I wonder if PawsWithCause resident artist, Emily, was inspired by Van Gogh's crabs. Here is her portrait of a chicken in a very similar contrasting color scheme. Amazing! And I love the brushstrokes!!

My Charcuterie Board (2022)

Taking art classes and exploring new mediums and techniques instigates new hobbies and adds to your toolbox. I especially enjoyed learning the art of wood burning when my daughter and I took a class to decorate charcuterie boards. The recent COVID pandemic prompted me to engage in teaching online classes with Heart Art Healing and their Circle of Love. I've also been moved by family members requesting me to teach art to homeschoolers. And while looking for classroom spaces to teach such groups I was asked to teach art at a city-sponsored Summer camp.

Judy's Family Portrait Collage (2019)

I think the students that inspire me the most are other seniors. While I am amazed at the existing talent of senior citizens, I am happy to see the less confident ones discover talent they weren't aware they had. This is why I teach at Franke Tobey Jones Senior University in Tacoma. It's almost always the same group of 12-15 artists, some who are painters, a quilter, and several novices, all of whom bring their enthusiasm to my classes. My Collage Portraits with Seniors class was particularly successful!

PushMePullYou from Dr. Dolittle (1967)

Inspiration is different than motivation. Some say that inspiration is a 'pull' while motivation is a 'push'. Inspiration is typically an internal, mental or emotional influence to do something creative. Motivation is more of a process of external stimulation with definite actions designed to achieve a goal. For example, weight loss could be a goal motivated or prescribed by a doctor to make a person healthier. The inspiration could be imagining yourself in a bathing suit or noticing the successful weight loss journey of another person. It may inspire you to think of creative ways to cook meals and make healthier choices.

My own motivation to do art is to inspire others to do it. My goal is to write in my blog every two weeks, to keep it interesting, and to get comments as a way of improving it or gauging its success. My hope is that my writing inspires others to be more creative, recognize and appreciate creativity in themselves and others, and feel good looking at, doing, or talking about art.

So, what inspires you? Creativity comes from the inside although it is often sparked by an outside stimulus.

Observation gives us the opportunity to realize and gain creative insight. Hopefully, this blog will inspire you to put forth the effort and provide you with the means, energy and enthusiasm needed to dedicate yourself to reaping your own artistic rewards.

My Art Bucket List

In the 2007 movie, The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman portray unlikely buddies who both prepare lists of things they want to do before they 'kick the bucket'. (The origin of the phrase has a much darker side which I won't go into here.) Suffice it to say that many people write down their life goals, career aspirations, milestones they wish to reach (e.g. financial stability, retirement), resolutions (e.g. spending more quality time with family), travel destinations, and even daring activities (e.g. skydiving, bungee jumping). Maybe we shouldn't wait until retirement to begin crossing them off!

Hammering Man (1991-2), Johnathan Borofsky

Well before my own retirement, I began to volunteer, acting for the most part as an art docent who taught art in elementary schools. I also devoted my time and energies to assorted charitable efforts, mostly associated with fundraising. I then joined the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), hosting gallery events, serving on their executive committee, and applying to become a museum docent. I didn't make the cut. This iconic in-motion sculpture almost didn't make it to SAM when a crane dropped him in 1991, sending him back to the foundry for repair for another year.

Urns ('buckets') inside The Hermitage Museum

As a family, we also began to do more serious travel abroad roughly ~5 years before our retirement. This is how I was afforded the opportunity to visit famous art museums around the world. It turns out that I've visited the top 4 museums -- The Louvre Museum in Paris, France (2011), The Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY (growing up), The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia (2019 Baltic cruise), and Tate Modern in London (2017). I've also been to The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA) in NYC (growing up), The Musee d'Orsay in Paris (2011), The National Gallery of London (2017), and also the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy (2011). That crosses off 8 of the top 14 museums.

Apollo (1963), Henri Matisse

Although the Louvre and Hermitage are certainly impressive to visit, you'd probably need a few days each to do them justice. Maybe some day I'll return (another bucket list item?)! Probably my favorite museums that I've visited are the Matisse and Chagall museums in Nice, France in May 2011 and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2019. It's exciting to finally see the impressive size of works of art that you've only seen in books, online, or in thumbnails.

A trip to Madrid, Spain would cross off 2 more museums -- The Prado and Reina Sofia, with maybe a side trip to see Salvador Dali's museum in Figueres. A trip to visit my brother in Florida may require a side trip to St. Petersburg to see the other stateside Dali museum. I have no intention to visit Towada, Japan or The Hague in the Netherlands. That just leaves our own National Gallery in Washington D.C. and the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois.

Smokey Joe Williams (1985), Mackie

I'd love to return to New York City and revisit the museums of my childhood. Although the Baseball HOF wasn't on my bucket list, I did travel to Cooperstown, NY with my brothers in July, 2019 for the induction of Seattle Mariner, Edgar Martinez. The Art of Baseball museum was amazing! Love this painting of Smokey Joe Williams by Deryl Daniel Mackie.

Tough Call (1948), Norman Rockwell

And of course the iconic Tough Call by Norman Rockwell.

Seeing the works of HOF artist, Justin Farano was definitely a highlight, and I snagged prints of the Class of 2019 and Ken Griffey Jr.

Sculpted Gate inside the Park, Oslo

Turning to sculpture, I was lucky enough to finally visit one of the top 16 sculpture parks -- the Vigeland Installation within Frogner Park -- on my third trip to Oslo, Norway. I missed it on my first two business trips. The only other venue (from the list) that I've visited is Olympic Sculpture Park in my native Seattle. There are 5 that I could visit here in the USA and 7 more that don't seem as likely. I'd have to return to another part of Italy or venture to the Netherlands to catch sight of the final two parks.

When you go to almost any art museum, expect to be surprised. When you travel to almost any city, expect to witness visual art around you and explore the local art museums. You'll discover things that weren't necessarily on somebody's bucket list but still create wonderful memories to last a lifetime!

Art Inside and Outside the Ballpark

Portrait within Seattle Times Pic

The Seattle Mariners

In honor of a great season of Seattle Mariners baseball I am posting about the artwork inside and outside of T-Mobile Park. As game #162 could be the last time we see third-baseman Kyle Seager play baseball as a Mariner, let's take another look at his portrait painted by artist Jeff "Weirdo" Jacobson for the 2018 Mariners Care Auction. I actually pasted the portrait inside 3rd base in a recent photo from the Seattle Times. Taking away 3rd base is hardly consolation for 10 years of Mariners baseball, though hopefully it means something to him and his family.

Edgar (2021), Lou Cella

Outside the park there is the newly installed statue of HOFer Edgar Martinez. It joins the one at the main entrance to T-Mobile Park dedicated to Ken Griffey Jr. Let's also not forget The Mitt, by Gerald Tsutakawa. These and others also appear in my recent post entitled, Edgar Statue, HOFers Murals, and Other Ballpark Art. I took this image from the Seattle Times and cropped it to use on my phone's lock screen. The tarp makes it look like the figure is emerging from a block of stone.

Other Large Art Installations

I also love all of the steel cutout figures of player silhouettes attached to the gates and fences around the outside of the stadium. One of our neighborhood playing fields has been decorated with figures representing multiple sports. My favorite has to be the fences and gates surrounding the city dog park in Palm Springs, CA. Dog faces and figures are actually incorporated into the structure created by sculptor Phill Evans.

Neon scribbles by Cerith Wyn Evans

I appreciate the large installations like the The Tempest that hangs in the main concourse at the Home Plate Gate. The centerpiece of the rotunda includes translucent baseball bats "molded of resin and mounted on brushed aluminum spiraling forms". See the Art-in-the-Park link at the top of this post. I am equally impressed when I find other modern installations like the neon light sculpture hanging in London's Tate Britain entrance.

Entrance to Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo

I'm not going to show the nude male figures sculpted in wrought iron on one of the gates in Oslo, Norway's Vigeland Sculpture Park. However, I certainly can show the intricate park entrance. Not a baseball park, but equally impressive iron work and tons of sculptures inside the park!

Brandenburg Gate w/ Quadriga, J.G. Schadow

Speaking of gates, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany is also impressive. We luckily got to visit it while on our cruise to seven countries (including Norway) along the Baltic Sea. Atop the structure you can see the sculpture by Johann Gottfried Schadow. Quadriga is a chariot drawn by four horses and driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. How 'bout that Mariners victory against the A's on 27 September! They actually beat Oakland 12 games in a row.

More Baseball Tributes

Cal Ripken in Wax

While visiting the Baseball HOF in Cooperstown, NY in July 2019 for the induction of Edgar Martinez, we saw lots of great baseball art. Here in the doorway of the Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum is a figure of Cal Ripken. We didn't actually go inside the museum and I am certain there was much more art to be seen outside of the HOF itself and in the surrounding town. Maybe someday there will be a similar tribute to Kyle Seager!

Babe Ruth & Ted Williams, Baseball HOF

My favorite sculpture inside the HOF is the side-by-side life-size basswood figures of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. The artist, Armand LaMontagene, hit this one out of the park!

Babe & Ted

Closeup of Ted & Babe

Gehrig, Robinson, and Clemente

These three HOF celebrities -- Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, and Roberto Clemente -- were immortalized together inside the hall in 2008 with bronze statues by sculptor, Stanley Bleifeld.

Kyle Seager has been deservedly nominated  for the 2021 Roberto Clemente Award.