Synopses & Reviews
The first comprehensive compendium of works by one of the groundbreaking pioneers of psychedelic poster art in the late 60s,
California Dreams is a career-spanning collection of 240 pieces pages created over more than five decades of nonstop artistic inspiration. Stanley Mouse is, of course, best known for the eye-popping and iconic posters, album covers and T-shirt designs heoften in collaboration with Alton Kelleymade during the hey-day of San Franciscos counterculture renaissance and well into the 1970s. His influential work during that era captured the color, fun, mystery, passion and creatively liberating experimentalism of those tumultuous times.
But this book also explores other sides of Mouses art, as well. Before taking Haight-Ashbury by storm, Mouse enjoyed tremendous success in his native Detroit detailing hot rods and airbrushing shirts and posters with whimsical drawings and paintings of crazy monsters and extreme cars. And more recently, in addition to satisfying ongoing demand for music-related commissions, Mouse has delved deeply into fine art, painting vivid landscapes and wonderfully evocative figurative pieces. Many of the works here have never been published before, and an added bonus is the inclusion of early versions of several of Mouses best-known pieces, and a glimpse into his personal
Synopsis
The story of Stanley "Mouse" Miller is a story of the cultural and artistic renaissance of the 1960s. It is difficult to separate the narrative of his journey through the music world from the artwork he created. Mouse was indeed an institution of the period living with the Grateful Dead in their Haight Ashbury Victorian, hosting Janis Joplin for a Big Brother audition at his studio, and calling Eric Clapton a favorite friend. Mouse's work weaves from pop art to rock art to fine art forms, underscoring the longevity and versatility of his mature ouevre. Mouse's tales are as whimsical as they are serendipitous, perfectly depicting San Francisco during the summer of love. Together, Mouse and Kelley became masterminds behind a new mediathat of the psychedelic posterwhich came to exemplify the Haight-Asbury of the late 1960s. The book will feature over 200 color images.
About the Author
Stanley "Mouse" Miller was the son of a Disney animator and grew up doing hot-rod art in Detroit. Mouse had a natural feel for the organic lines of Art Nouveau as well as a hand that drew the art seemingly of its own volition. Upon moving to San Francisco, he teamed up with Alton Kelley to form the renowned "Mouse and Kelley." Many of their posters remain enduring symbols of the sixties counterculture. His art is displayed in numerous museums around the world including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Tokyo Museum Of Modern Art, The Louvre in Paris as well as the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Mouse is still actively painting and he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.