May 8, 2008

By Chris Samson
Argus-Courier Staff

When Stanley Mouse opened a studio in downtown Petaluma for about a year in the early 1980s, he was selling airbrushed T-shirts with his original art work on them for $20 — and getting few takers.

Today, he gets $1,000 for the same kind of T-shirts.

Mouse, the renowned creator of concert posters and album covers for some of rock music’s biggest stars, returned to Petaluma last month for the opening of his show, “Mouse and Renoir,” at the Pelican Art Gallery. And on May 17, he will be back at the gallery to sign copies of his posters and his book, “Freehand: The Art of Stanley Mouse.”

Mouse’s appearance, from 1 to 5 p.m., coincides with the “Cruisin’ the Boulevard” classic car event, and it’s fitting, since Mouse started his career in Detroit painting hot rods before he turned to rock music.

The unusual combination of sculptures by French impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and impressionist paintings by Mouse was suggested by John Strong, who owns the Renoir sculptures and was Mouse’s landlord when he lived in Petaluma 25 years ago.

“He always said he wanted to have an exhibit of his Renoir sculptures with me,” Mouse said. “I thought he was joking.”

Mouse was once described as “the man who drew the face on rock music” by San Francisco Chronicle music writer Joel Selvin. He and his partner, Alton Kelley, created the skeleton and roses image that became the icon for the Grateful Dead.

“I based that on an illustration by Edmund Sullivan for ‘The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam,’” he said.

Mouse is credited with defining the look of some of rock ’n’ roll’s most famous bands, including the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Journey and the Steve Miller Band. Mouse and Kelley produced posters for rock concerts at the Avalon Ballroom and for promoter Bill Graham during the 1960s and 1970s that have a distinctive look.

He still creates his “poster art” (one of the paintings on display depicts a skeleton with a wreath of roses playing an electric guitar that he drew for an ad for a cell phone company). But after he moved to New Mexico in 1983, he began exploring fine art, and most of his 30 paintings on display at the Pelican gallery are impressionistic portraits of women.

“The romantic renderings of both artists, Mouse and Renoir, represent their passion for capturing the life and energy of the human figure, the focus of the exhibit,” said Linda Postenrieder, co-owner of the gallery.

Mouse moved back to the Bay Area and was living in Sonoma in 1993 when he required a liver transplant, which the Grateful Dead raised money to pay for. Now 67, he says his health is good and he lives in Sebastopol, where he has a studio on Main Street.

(Contact Chris Samson at chris.samson@arguscourier.com)

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