Jeff Standing Bear

Jeff graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta on a Friday in 1982 with a degree in Visual Communications. Later that day he was hired by Mountain South Innovations, an apparel screen print company. MSI's clients included several bands and touring acts. It was his induction into the music merchandising business. Leaving Atlanta for a 4 year walkabout he traveled the Native Powwow circuit selling bead work, carvings, paintings and airbrushed shirts. He was also doing museum restoration work on period Native pieces, as well as creating Native American Church Fans. it was at this time that Jeff, whose given family name was "Standing Bear", played the role of the Medicine man in the movie "Ernest Goes to Camp. In 1988 he jumped back into the default world and worked at several art director jobs in the screen printing business. It was during this period he discovered the power of the Macintosh computer. In 1994 he became the Creative Director for Island Screenworks located in Myrtle Beach, SC. Island Screenworks was a state of the art screen printing facility specializing in large production runs on apparel and flat stock. Jeff was also teaching digital graphics, consulting along with writing digital graphics how-to articles for industry magazines such as The Press. In 1995 he started doing posters for the entertainment business. He longed to pursue his love of art that is associated with music. Inspired by the work of Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin in 1999 he walked away from the corporate world to follow a dream. It truly has been a long strange trip. He has worked in many different genres of the music industry from Punk and Rockabilly to Jamband and Southern Rock. Jeff's present musical infatuation is in the world fusion and electronic DJ scene which he was introduced to at Burning Man in 2006. Burning Man changed his life. It tends to have that effect on people, especially artistic types looking to refocus their work. It was a turning point in his career. He decided to pick up his brushes and start painting again. With a renewed love for oil painting he has studied the visionary arts under Maestro Roberto Venosa and Martina Hoffmann, as well as visionary masters Alex and Allyson Grey. Jeff also now paints live at events and concerts. Jeff's states his purpose in doing art as documenting moments in time for people. Like rock poster artists before him, he draws the face on the music that is the soundtrack to people's lives.