![]() He also created posters for the Retinal Circus, a club on Davie Street. Once again, Masse made his breakthrough by offering to do the first one without charge. The poster had been displayed all over town before anyone noticed the egregious misspelling.ĭespite that unpromising debut, the budding graphic artist soon became the poster-maker for the Afterthought, a music-and-light show put on by teenaged promoter Jerry Kruz. Masse created an attractive poster featuring black-and-white photographic portraits of the singer over his name in capital letters: BOB DYLON. The tousle-haired singer had just released his fifth studio album, Bringing It All Back Home, which would prove to be one of the most influential releases of the decade. As it turned out, the young impresario Howie Bateman was presenting a show featuring a 23-year-old protest folkster from Minnesota via Greenwich Village. #Bob masse posters freeHe crossed the street and offered to do free posters for the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. As part of his studies, he had to do commercial work. The Masses lived in Burnaby, and young Bob attended the old Vancouver School of Art in downtown Vancouver. It has been, as the Grateful Dead noted, a long, strange trip: Masse is the son of Lill and Joseph Masse, an army veteran and furniture refinisher who supported a family of four children as a Woodward’s employee. Who buys Masse? “Young kids who want to decorate their campus dorm walls to people who will pay a couple of hundred, or even a couple thousand.” Those are substantial sums for what was once considered ephemera. Just the other day, he had orders from France, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, and Puerto Rico. He says he is busier than ever in this year of the virus, as lockdowns and internet access have exposed his work to new customers around the world. His new work, licensed by a New York agency, is still as eye-catching, the lettering more legible and more often rendered in soothing aquamarine tones. “I work for dead people,” he giggles.įor some, the ’60s remain more alive than the musicians he illustrates. “I’m just finishing a new Janis piece,” Masse says on the telephone, the shriek of packing tape punctuating his sentences as he multitasks. Today’s versions are a little less druggy, though just as groovy. The posters catch attention in garish greens and pulsating purples. The band’s name and the venue are rendered in far-out lettering. He is known for ornate art nouveau–inspired borders featuring flowing flower stalks that surround nymph-like women in various stages of diaphanous undress. The posters were slapped up around town and promptly forgotten. Sometimes he was paid $10, other times nothing at all. When not on the computer creating new images in Adobe Photoshop, he’s stuffing mailing tubes and boxes with vibrant prints to send to customers around the world.īack in the day, he crafted posters for the chance to get backstage and hang out with musicians. The celebrated artist, known for his glorious psychedelic concert posters, is as busy as ever in his Salt Spring Island studio. The ’60s ended a half-century ago, yet they live on in the fertile imagination of Bob Masse. ![]()
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