Next year, 2016, will be the twenty fifth anniversary of the much-too-soon passing of famed poster artist Rick Griffin. Like too many good people, he lost his life in a motorcycle accident in Petaluma, California. He was truly a California Nature Boy, surfing his way up and down the coast. Surfing led Rick to illustration, … Read More
For the last 42 years, thousands of costumed weirdos have paraded through the bohemian capital of Greenwich Village, New York City – and that’s just what happens on Halloween. We talk a lot about San Francisco and the West Coast being the origin place for American counterculture and the hippie lifestyle because, well, it is, … Read More
Here at Little Hippie we’ve been on a mission to dive into the origin story and evolution of the hippie – where did this culture come from, what does it mean and what are the values of that we’re passing onto our little hippies? Persians, Greeks and Germans were at it way before anyone thought … Read More
You’re probably wondering, really? Bill Gates, artistic inspiration? That can’t be! Yes, it’s true. You read that right. Bill Gates was indeed one of my primary influences as a young artist. Allow me to explain. I finished college in December of 1998, a semester ahead of schedule. I had left high school a year early as … Read More
So, you ask, “Why the owl? And what’s it got to do with the Grateful Dead? These are questions I’ve been hearing a lot. The answer is, it has a little to do with the Grateful Dead, and a lot to do with me. The first iteration of my owl was born in the fall of 2013 while I … Read More
Our fearless leader and artist in chief Taylor Swope was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal as part of their coverage of the Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well limited edition posters. For the grand “Fare Thee Well” finale in Chicago, the band commissioned nine different posters and two triptychs (consisting of a three inter-connected … Read More
With the Fare Thee Well shows come and gone, I’m left reminiscing about how I got here in the first place.
In the summer of 2001, when I was wide eyed and ready to see the world, I set out on a mission to photograph music festival culture.
The previous fall I had been in Los Angeles working for a photographer where I met the people who would soon introduce me to the jamband world. That winter back at home in New York City, I went to shows at the Wetlands (RIP) every weekend, meeting lots of people and learning everything I could about festivals.
As an artist and designer of one of the official Fare Thee Well posters, Little Hippie’s Chief Executive Artist Taylor Swope is among the lucky few who will be attending all of the final Grateful Dead performances – last weekend in Santa Clara, California, and this weekend in Chicago. Taylor’s official Fare Thee Well posters, previewed above, will be for … Read More
You’ve probably heard about what it is to struggle to be an artist. Some have struggled pretty hard, including a music composer named Charles Edward Ives (left), who was largely ignored during his lifetime (1874 – 1954). This had a major impact on the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh. “Phil was going to college of San … Read More
The book Harrington Street was not completed before Jerry Garcia’s death, but is billed as an autobiography of the musician and author until age 10. The Grateful Dead’s current exhibition on the literary history of the band at the Archive at UC Santa Cruz features one particularly out of place primary source – a photocopy … Read More