Raymond Pettibon (born "Raymond Ginn"; "Pettibon" is a nickname) is an American graphic artist born in 1957 in Tucson, Arizona. His work has figured prominently in the world of punk and indie music, and he has established himself as an international artist through multiple exhibitions of his drawings around the world.

The foundation for Pettibon's work was formed in the late 70s and early 80s when he created numerous flyers and album covers for several punk bands. Pettibon's brother, Greg Ginn, was in Black Flag and the artist began his prolific public career by drawing a majority of the band's flyers and cover art.

Pettibon's early work reflected the spirit of the era, as can be seen in the cover art of several Black Flag releases, such as Jealous Again (two high school girls clad in mock Western wear and looking very rambunctious, enhanced by a bright yellow background and a comic book style); Six Pack (black and white illustration of a boy huddled in the corner of a room with big splotches of paint on the floor); Family Man (fluorescent blue and green and red image of a man who has just wounded and killed his family and is now pointing the gun at the side of his head); My War (freaky scary hand puppet holding a knife in beautiful blue, yellow, and red); and Slip It In (naughty nun with her arm wrapped around a hairy leg). He did work for the Minutemen, including the cover for What Makes a Man Start Fires? (a man with a torch running from a room that is ablaze) and the center part of the vinyl EP "Bean Spill" (a yellow and red drawing of a man's pelvic region, legs splayed, penis erect). His cover work for Sonic Youth's Goo featured a gritty black and white drawing of a young man with his arm around a young woman; both are wearing sunglasses, and there is text in the upper right corner that reads "I STOLE MY SISTER'S BOYFRIEND. IT WAS ALL WHIRLWIND, HEAT, AND FLASH. WITHIN A WEEK WE KILLED MY PARENTS AND HIT THE ROAD." The back cover depicts an older couple; the woman is wiping the man's face and the text in the upper left corner reads "NOTHING....LIPSTICK, A LITTLE BLOOD."

This style of stark black and white scenes with the text, whether descriptive or narrative, outside of the focus of the image and never in a word balloon, was used by Pettibone in many works of that era (late 80s, early 90s); several have been collected in books both in (Raymond Pettibon by Robert Storr) and out-of-print (Raymond Pettibon: The Books 1978-1998 by Raymond Pettibon) Both books feature a collection of his flyers, excerpts from his many zines, and several of the numerous drawings he has done over the years.

Pettibon released a book of drawings and writings in 2002 entitled Plots Laid Thick He currently lives and works in Hermosa Beach, California.

Sources:
http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pettibon.html
http://www.eai.org/eai/biography.jsp?artistID=343
http://www.pacpubserver.com/new/enter/5-7-99/pettibon.html
http://ohno.itgo.com/minutemenbeanspill.htm

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