We’re pleased to make available beautiful poster art and tee shirt work from Austin artist extraordinaire Danny Garrett.
After a tour in Viet Nam Danny moved to Austin in the spring of 1970. Looking up Jim Franklin at Armadillo World Headquarters, Danny was given his first poster assignment, John Sebastian. From that spring until New Year’s Eve, 1979, Danny executed over a dozen AWHQ titles. He also did work for Castle Creek, Soap Creek Saloon, The Texas Opry House, The Austin Opera House, and many other Austin music venues. In 1976, Danny also began work for Antone’s, Austin’s Home of the Blues.
It is probably for his work at Antone’s, 1976 – 2005, for which Danny is best known in music art and ephemera. Danny had the privilege of meeting and promoting some of the greats of the Chicago blues scene – Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy and James Cotton – just to name a few. Danny completed promotional artwork for such young Texas artists as Jimmie Vaughan, Derek O’Brien, Denny Freeman, Paul Ray and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Besides the music industry, Danny also worked in film and video, including various gigs such as courtroom artist for local TV stations, art directing Scary Movie, the indie preceding the Hollywood brand by the same name, and computer game work for Origin Systems, the 1990’s premier Austin game company. He has also taught art at Austin Community College and Auckland University of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand, where he worked for five years and was one of the founding faculty members of it’s digital degree plan — one of the finest in the Southern Hemisphere. He continues to work in the Austin art market, whatever the creative parameter.
Header photo by Robert Eckstrom – Danny Garrett at Sheauxnough Studios at 16th and Lavaca in 1974.