Custom Grateful Dead woodcut art piece

Recently, we were commissioned to create a custom Grateful Dead art piece to fit perfectly in a specified space in a beautiful home in Oakley, UT, just a few miles from our shop space and home. They theme of piece was to be loosely based on the popular song, “Ripple”. This presented us with a new challenge, as we knew little to nothing about the Dead. Neither Bree or I were fans of the band or the cult following prior to this project.

To begin this design, we started to listen to their music, and also reached out to old friends that are true fans for some inspiration. We were guided to some older albums and an era known as the Pigpen era. Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was a founding member of the original San Francisco based group, and played with them from 1965 to 1972.

During our research of “Ripple” we came across an animated music video that was based on tarot. We decided to incorporate this as a theme, including the families zodiac signs for each parent and child. This encompassed four in signs in total, Aries, Cancer, Leo, and Scorpio.

Per the client request, we included the popular lyric “let their be songs to fill the air”. We also incorporated the dancing bears playing in and around the tarot goblet.

We were more than pleased with the finished product, and by the end of it, had become fans of their early music. When we presented it to the client, she shed tears of joy, pleasure and excitement. It hangs in their beautiful home, perfectly fit to the space.