It’s not every day you get to be in the presence of legends like Johnny Cash, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix.
This weekend was the first time the Deep Ellum Arts Festival hosted the Rock Art Show. The traveling gallery of 150 pieces of both original and professionally reproduced sealed art, hand written lyrics, album cover art, drawings, paintings and photographs made its way from Philadelphia to Dallas.
The traveling Rock Art Show made its first Dallas appearance in February of 2005 at the Willow Bend Mall. Scott Segelbaum started this rocking art idea in 1992 while working for KLSX radio station in Los Angeles. The show quickly gained popularity and brought to light the artistic side of musicians that had long gone unnoticed.
The small makeshift gallery on Main Street looked more like a worn-down factory workshop than a traditional classy, clean-cut art venue. Appropriately so it would seem, because visitors to the gallery saw a side of these class acts that legends leave out. Whether it was Johnny Cash’s soulful stare or George Harrison’s cigar grin that caught peoples attention, it was the emotion of the art and photographs that kept them gazing.
“This is the kind of stuff you need to see in person,” advised Segelbaum. “You get to see another side of the musician, and it has an effect on you.”
The Beatles section of the gallery had the most pieces on display and also one of the most expensive. “Big Mountain Face,” Paul McCartney’s 1991 acrylic on canvas, which is one of 200 pencil -signed lithographs, sells for $3,400.
Segelbaum, a huge Beatle’s fan, purchased his first John Lennon piece in the 1980s for roughly $350 and estimates its present-day value at around $6,000.
“With ebay you have so many counterfeits, but with this show you know what you’re getting,” said Segelbaum. What you get is not only “neat art that is signed,” but also an investment that is almost surely going to increase in value with the years.
According to employee Gregory Zakowicz, the majority of visitors that stop to look at the art usually don’t purchase. Even so, Segelbaum stated, “for some reason everything is bigger in Texas,” and “Dallas is a great market.” Of the 45 destinations, Dallas and Houston have been on the top five along with the Hamptons and New York.
Zakowicz travels with co-worker Stephanie Krause across the country putting on the Rock Art Show, while Segelbaum continues to work in Philadelphia. They take turns driving a custom-tailored van that tightly houses all the various-sized artwork during transport. The art represents more than just a sale or an exhibition of talent- it reflects the human quality of heroically portrayed individuals and bands. The stories behind the art are what truly make it intriguing and meaningful.
The Doors’ famous “Morrison Hotel” album cover that was shot by Henry Diltz was on display this past weekend. When the band discovered this Los Angeles hotel and informed the front desk clerk they would snap a few pictures, they were told not to without the owners’ permission and were asked to leave. Diltz saw the clerk get into the elevator, so the band quickly ran inside and posed while Diltz shot a roll of film, of which the album cover picture was born.
