Mazzy Star Poster 2012 Sacramento. 11x17 Offset

When designing my Mazzy Star poster for their spring 2012 show at Harlow's in Sacramento, I wanted something that felt simultaneously rustic, mystic and a bit naive. In going down that rabbit hole I became fascinated with the idea of a bucking horse suspended silently in mid-air. That was definitely an arresting image but it needed more. I built out from there imagining this being a kind of 1920s roadshow revival in a rural Chautauqua tent. Hellfire and the supernatural in a pageant-style setting. Its a time and place I've long found fascinating, and used to pretty good effectpreviously in my 2006 poster for Mark Kozelek.

I aimed for a color palate that was dark without feeling cold and accented it with more vibrant luminous colors. The design would pull in elements of art deco and nouveau flourishes and clouds designed to feel like handmade scenery in some quasi-biblical morality play. The band title I designed to carry a bit of that turn of the century low burlesque house feel as well. Shoebox opera, as it were. Moreover, I wanted everything to feel a bit narcotic and sleepy, a bit of a hallucination, with a thin layer of noise throughout to make everything take on a gauzy patina. As if you're seeing it all through an opaque scrim. All velvet and smoke. Adding the hand as a focal point above the name adds a touch of mystery: is the hand somehow levitating the horse or is it reacting in shock to it? I leave that up to the viewer.

MAZZY STAR OFFSET POSTER SPECS

• 11” x 17” offset color print

• Printed on heavyweight archival matte paper

• Each piece individually signed when purchased from this site (please be sure to request this at checkout)