This is one of the first images I created. It’s one of the designs with which I launched Little Hippie in early 2003, a year before I became a Grateful Dead licensee, back when my art was more about my beliefs than it was about music. The word hippie has a lot of … Read More
A lot of people assume I went to art school or that I grew up making art. I didn’t. Rather, I grew up wanting to be a writer. From third grade through college where I was an English and French major I was obsessed with writing, but the truth was I never felt like I … Read More
When I was twelve years old during the summer between 6th and 7th grade, I started sneaking out at night. I lived in a small town on the CT shoreline that was even smaller then, and my family lived in an old Colonial house with a big huge barn, both built in the mid 19th … Read More
I’ll always remember the day the first Bonnaroo was announced. It was not quite a year after I started going to festivals, and at the time a big festival was 10,000 people. I had spent the summer prior documenting festival culture as a photographer, and of the 15 festivals I attended in 2001, almost all … 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
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