Moscoso
Neon Rose #3 (Big Brother
& The Holding Company)
clerk
doors
garcia
flower
millerblues
mountain
sopwith
junior
Victor Moscoso
Victor Moscoso
Where To?
Corte Madera
Fairfax
Greenbrae
Kentfield
Larkspur
Marin City
Mill Valley
Novato
Ross
San Anselmo
San Rafael
Sausalito
Tiburon
West Marin
VICTOR MOSCOSO gained international
attention for his psychedelic rock posters during
The Summer of Love in 1967 as well as for his
work as a Zap Comix Artist a year later. His
comics and poster work have continued up to
the present and include album covers for
musicians such as Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir,
Herbie Hancock, and David Grisman. Today
he lives in San Geronimo where he continues to
create.
JASON: Do you have any Marin nostalgia?
MOSCOSO: If you look at my poster of Big
Rose #3 on my website, it shows the band in
front of an American flag. That photograph was
taken at the hunting lodge in Lagunitas when Big
Brother and The Holding Company were living
there, right after Janis Joplin joined the group.
And that’s the first published photograph of the
complete band (in 1967). So how’s that for
Marin County?
JASON: Something tells me you aren't a Marin
native.
MOSCOSO: I was raised in New York City and
to me, Marin County is paradise. To have
Limantour Beach a half hour away from where I
am! (Back East) I had to go on the subway to
Coney Island where there were a million people
on the 4th of July on one mile of sand. And then
to come out to Limantour, pick the right day and
there’s nobody there but you. When I first saw
that it was magical. It was the kind of stuff I saw
in movies... Unfortunately, my own children,
cannot afford to buy a house where they were
born and raised. That’s a bummer.
JASON: How has living in Marin affected your
work?
MOSCOSO: I swam in the Atlantic Ocean
during my youth and here I am facing west
where the sun sets. In New York the sun sets
over New Jersey. In Marin County, the sun sets
over the Pacific. Totally different. As far as my
work, I would say not significantly, not directly.
The fact that I happen to be living in paradise
must have some impact on my work. How
could it not?
JASON: Did you originate that psychedelic type
face in your posters?
MOSCOSO: Yes.
JASON: Was the typeface inspired in any way
by LSD trips?
MOSCOSO: Not at all. That typeface was
inspired by Wes Wilson’s negative lettering.
Wes Wilson was doing the type of alphabet that
he had picked up from a secessionist Viennese
artist named Alfred Roller. He adapted it and
really twisted it around. The key to his lettering
is that he didn’t draw the letters, he drew the
space in between. It was very fast and there
was no typeface like that, and it had to be hand
drawn. We weren’t using type anyway and that
was a very efficient way of working. I wanted to
develop my own typeface where I do not do
letters but the spaces in between.
So you see, this has nothing to do with Marin
County. The whole thing about the posters was
attract your attention, that’s why the vibrating
colors, not to simulate an LSD trip. And then
the typeface was made difficult to read to
engage the viewer and to keep your attention
there. And what happened without us actually
thinking and planning it is that what we did is we
made an advertising art. But they become
entertainment when you get hung up … figuring
out how to read it, the images that it carries with
it. So that it becomes like a piece of music onto
itself.
JASON: Marin has changed a lot since the ‘60s
and the ‘70s. Are there particular places, other
than Limantour Beach, that were favorite places
of yours?
MOSCOSO: Let me see, there was River City,
The Woods, and there was another folk place in Fairfax. It was happening
at the time. On Sunday night at River City they had Big Band. You know
like Benny Goodman and Glen Miller, and the next night they’d have folk
music. The next night they’d have rock and roll. I mean it was like a real
smorgasbord, you know? There was disco in
The Woods. You got whatever music you
wanted and it was all in little Fairfax. Very
quaint.
---
Signed copies of Victor Moscoso's newest
book Sex, Rock, & Optical Illusions are
available for purchase on his website.
COPYRIGHT
All of the material
on this website is
copyrighted by
Jason Lewis
unless otherwise
stated. Those
images not owned
by Jason Lewis
are copyrighted
by their
respective
owners. If you
are interested in
using material
from these pages,
please contact
Jason Lewis at
jason@marinnost
algia.org prior to
doing so.
COPYRIGHT
All of the material
on this website is
copyrighted by
Jason Lewis
unless otherwise
stated. Those
images not owned
by Jason Lewis
are copyrighted
by their
respective
owners. If you
are interested in
using material
from these pages,
please contact
Jason Lewis at
jason@marinnost
algia.org prior to
doing so.
