Artist Profile: Buddy Finethy

By Ellen Samsell Salas

 

Multimedia artist Buddy Finethy began his creative adventure as a 5-year-old comic book junkie. Drawn to the sense of fun and experimentation found in comic books, Finethy knew early on that he, too, wanted to create worlds and characters and to transform ideas into visual experiences that people would enjoy.

 

With his brain “psychedelicized by Marvel comics” and 1960s gig posters, and with his love of the blues, Finethy embraced the pop culture revolution that rock music ignited in the 60s. Breaking free of rules for more than 30 years, Finethy has reveled in this world of possibility. The result has been art that breaks free of the limitations of flat surfaces and resonates with bright and muted colors, light and shadow, movement, fantasy and reality, people and imaginary beings, flowers, geometric patterns, and text.

 

I stumbled into this world of makers. People who create; I realized that was my religion,” Finethy said.

 

In the 1980s, he began creating work for Relix magazine, “the LIFE magazine of the Grateful Dead and the bands around them.” He says that his Grateful Dead work for Relix remains some of his favorite.

 

Here I am in the world of the Grateful Dead, and I saw I wanted that lack of borders,” he recalled. “That’s where my characters came from.”

 

In addition to his Dead work, Finethy created gig posters, album covers, and cartoons for other music legends including the Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Translating the spirit of music into succinct visual experiences, he earned a spot in the Hard Rock Cafe Hall of Fame with his art for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

 

When he retired from the corporate world, Finethy returned to the music world. In 2016, the Allman Brothers called upon Finethy to create merchandise designs, in anticipation of the band’s 50th anniversary tour. Now, he does pro bono art for up-and-coming musicians and helps them learn how to market themselves.

 

Always with a notebook, a mechanical pencil, and an iPad in hand, Finethy creates daily. Each piece begins with an idea, then a concept sketch that he “bounces” into his iPad to clean it up before bouncing it back out for a redraw. Using various hardnesses of lead, he achieves different effects and tones. In Photoshop, he captures the tones and converts them into the colors he envisions.

 

You’re filtering light in and out,” he said. “The advantage is I keep the energy and my original gray tones for the printed version.”

 

When printing the image, he transforms a static canvas into art that amazes viewers with its surprises and depth. Finethy likes working in acrylics that grab the surface and sometimes uses an engraving tool to carve into the paint, further adding to the depth of the work.

 

I’m a junkie for multi-dimensional,” he said.

 

Whether helping young musicians translate their music into visuals, writing children’s books, or teaching workshops to other eternal students, Finethy continues to embrace the spirit of experimentation and possibility that he discovered as a child.

 

You can enjoy Finethy’s art at Facebook/buddy.finethy or Instagram (joebud01).