Jerry Garcia: For My Own Amusement!

Originality, serendipity, humor and surprise infuse the art of Jerry Garcia. Although his visual inventions span a wide range of themes, they are basically depictions of fleeting thoughts and images arising from nowhere in particular. Jerry addressed subject matter as it arose in his mind or out of his pen, never planning or making corrections, but working automatically, for the pleasure of line and color and forms emerging in front of him at that moment. For current availability and prices please contact the gallery by email or at 510/282-8989. This page does not represent our entire inventory.

Jerry’s Visual Art

Jerry, like John Lennon, was an art student in the early sixties. He thought of himself as an artist who played music, and from early childhood he enjoyed making comics and sketches. As a teenager he (somewhat lightly) attended the San Francisco Art Institute, but not long after that the Warlocks evolved and the rest is history. Although Jerry was constantly performing, he never stopped drawing and painting. He was very prolific and has produced in his lifetime over two thousand original works. He was an insomniac, and even after long nights on exhausting tours he stayed up at night drawing and painting, and drinking orange soda. He was also interested in the art of our time and had collected the work of various artists. Jerry’s drawings are a like a tour of his head uncensored and unrestrained, for his art was like his music, as he said “A line on paper is like a note in the air; it’s out there and you can’t take it back,” and he never did, never retraced his steps or corrected a stroke. It was his general philosophy that you don’t look back; and since Jerry did not write an autobiography these drawings are the closest we can come to seeing the inner workings of a kaleidoscopic mind. Jerry enjoyed the tools of art and used the best Schmincke watercolors, and Prismacolor pencils, and most of the work is fully archival. Prices on the originals have been steady with sales of originals bringing as much as $100,000 for a single important piece. Jerry painted strictly for his own pleasure and amusement, was a bit shy about his work and somewhat surprised when it began to sell; and very…well…grateful-- that others valued it enough to purchase it. He came to the art openings to meet fans, and enjoyed his second career immensely. He kept a playful approach to his work. There are four or five themes or categories in the work – characters and oddballs, including an assortment of aliens, landscapes real and imaginary, stream of consciousness drawings and animals, including an assortment of bugs, bees, and butterflies. As Jerry was growing up the image of the artist was as an intuitive philosopher and interpreter of the times; a seer. The audience was there, not only as witnesses, but as participants in his/her discoveries. This generous spirit was also the compelling gift of Jerry’s music; the reason so many have shared intimate infinite time with Jerry Garcia. --Roberta Weir

Jerry Garcia: For My Own Amusement!

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Jerry’s Visual Art