Howard Faxon
“Looking Backwards” (digital painting/collage – 48″ x 60″)
©2017 Howard Faxon – all rights reserved
I made this as a commemorative to the “celebration” of the 50 year anniversary to the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco which is taking place this summer. It may be a bit of a commentary as well. It certainly has been interesting to see the interpretations of what many who weren’t born yet think it was like in 1967. Myself, well, I was a little too young at the time to be anything other than an observer. I do appreciate a number of things that the hippies taught me and I believe it won’t hurt to reflect on this time in our history. It would do us good to actually remember what happened. The summer is just starting and I do look forward to many of the events.
I made it in the manner of a poster and maybe a postcard as well. An unofficial commemorative poster that I might offer as an art print. I made it for fun really and thought, “Well, why not?” Everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon for all the right and wrong reasons. My reasons are whimsical but get your T-shirt and poster today!
All of the photo collages I make use only my personal photographs and/or elements from my photographs. No stock photos or appropriations of any kind are used. It is a primary source of my image making fun to get the photos I need to make the collages and manipulations. My photo archive has a lot of oddball images because of this. The butterflies, flowers, and lizard in this piece were all photographed in my yard during the last few years. (The lizard is not shown in its natural color)
How creative is this Howard!
Thank you Carol. The celebration is in full swing now. Last night there was a concert and light show in Golden Gate Park. I’ll have some pictures later of some of the events…
This would make a fantastic album cover… I remember my sister had a Santana album (a record or LP) that had a cover that I could stare at and seemingly see a million things… This reminds me of that!
Thanks so much. I kind of made it in that vain or tried to a bit. I’ve made a bunch of psychedelic inspired things. It contains most every butterfly that comes to my yard except the Fiery Skipper. The lizard also lives here. I think I may have seen him the other day when I was weeding.
Beautiful. Cincinnati is always a step behind the rest and I think that ’69 was closer to our Summer of Love. I made it – and I still remember it. I did inhale and Boone’s Farm Apple Wine was rampant.
Yup, ’69 was the real pivotal year. Woodstock was ’69 but also the unrest was growing momentum and in May 1970 when Kent State happened the gloves came off.
Oh man, Boones’s Farm – we drank that when we weren’t old enough. Haven’t thought about that for some time .
Fantastic edit
Thanks so very much.
Beautiful composition! It’s a fine tribute to that magical era.
Thanks. At that moment of optimism in SF there was a background of turmoil as well. It was also the summer of the riots in Detroit that are so famous now.
Some of the tributes happening are very sweet and inspiring. I especially have enjoyed some of the art exhibits of posters from this happening.
How wonderful! this is gorgeous 🙂
Thanks very much. I’ve been enjoying seeing your work here as well. Some of your photos are very local to me. Your art is very engaging and rewarding, and I love looking at stuff. Cheers.
Beautiful
Thanks Olga, happy Monday and hope you have a great week!
I was young then to appreciate art. Now I appreciate this one.
Thanks so much. It is a bit of an extrapolation but butterflies were prevalent in a lot of the art. I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Hey Howard, great image!
I too have been Heavily by the whole hippy thing, being 8 yrs. old in ’67 I didn’t get to understand things like that till probably ’74.
By then, my whole life took a turn and my artistic talents started to show.
I am probably most influenced by Peter Max most, but others of the day too!
@Woodywood143 and I Fractal artists and 3D digital artists, good to see you here too.
This is my first week on the platform, so I am happy to find you too!
Hey man, I remember you from Tsu. It’s good to see you as well. I am a bit of a math geek so I’ve had a passing interest in fractal geometry since some time in the nineties. I like viewing the artwork. !974 was when Nixon went down late in the summer. A couple of years after that I was studying computer science with an eye on art applications. I had one of the first PASCAL User Manual and Reports (still have it actually) It was the very early days of hidden surface elimination and rounding of solids. We rotated objects by math …. Anyway, now my software is very clunky and I do most everything with one $29.99 software and I’ve been out of the loop for so long. I rely on my printmaking and graphic arts experience. The rudimentary software lets me think in familiar terms.
Looking forward to seeing your work. I am going to be filming some events in SF and will probably post something from SOL-2. Cheers.
This is beautiful!
Thanks Ellie. I appreciate that. Cheers! >)
Beautiful work! Shared on Facebook.
Thank you so much! I kept thinking about the psychedelic art from then and made a few before this one. It was mostly for fun. Cheers!
Very nice work!
Thanks so much. It was fun to make it. 🙂
Awesome creation Howard. I was the youngest of four I was 11 in 1967. My sister was 19 she was a Hippy. My Brothers were in the Army, the draft got them. Lucky we all survived those years. They were a major influence in my life even at that age. Shortly after 67 I could swear I saw a man walking on the moon, but I’m not certain anymore.
I’m in the same time frame. No one could help being influenced by all that.
They were in the lottery by the time I had to register.
Among my friends here are a lot of ’60’s people who became artists of various disciplines – I kept learning things from them over the decades. They’re 10 years in front of me.
NBA finals are on now – streets are pretty deserted. It’s funny.
Cheers.
cool artwork
Thank you very much. Cheers!