Micael Priest (October 21, 1951 – September 12, 2018) was an American artist and

raconteur A humorist ( American) or humourist ( British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show busin ...

. Due to Priest's color-blindness, his primary medium was pen and ink, which he put to great use in inexpensively printed, highly graphic, rock posters. Often printed in single color or split-fountain reliefs, the posters were done mostly for

Armadillo World Headquarters Armadillo World Headquarters (The 'Dillo or Armadillo WHQ) was an influential Texas music hall and beer garden in Austin at 525 Barton Springs Road – at South First Street – just south of the Colorado River and downtown Austin. The 'Dillo ...

, a music hall in Austin, Texas that operated from August 7, 1970 to December 31, 1980.

Biography

Priest had a prodigious and humorous cartoon style inspired by Walt Disney. In the seventh grade he was awarded a scholarship to the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bo ...

, founded by Walt Disney in Santa Clarita, California in 1961, but his family moved from California to Texas before he could start school. Undeterred, he adopted his personal interpretation of the style anyway, stating it "was actually a brush style where you used the varying thickness of line to imply weight, depth, or shadow." His 1972 poster for the Armadillo World Headquarters for a

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and ''Stardust'' (1978 ...

and

Greezy Wheels Greezy Wheels is an Austin, Texas-based progressive country band that formed in the 1970s. They played more frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters than any other band in the history of the venue. They are regarded as the Armadillo house ...

set him on a path that eventually totaled more than 100 posters for the Armadillo alone. Priest moved to Austin in 1969, where he got his start at the Vulcan Gas Company, a rock music venue in Austin. He worked with artist Jim Franklin and took over as art director after cartoonist

Gilbert Shelton Gilbert Shelton (born May 31, 1940) is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'', ''Fat Freddy's Cat'', and '' Wonder W ...

moved to San Francisco to become a key member of the

underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

movement. Beginning in 1972, Priest ran a counter-culture art studio called Directions Company and commissioned artists for various clients, beginning with Eddie Wilson of The Armadillo World Headquarters. "The Armadillo Art Squad," with Priest as its most prominent member, included artists Michael E. Arth,

Kerry Awn Kerry Fitzgerald (born 1949), better known as Kerry Awn, is an American cartoonist, actor, muralist, comedian, musician, iconographer and poster artist. He is best known for his comedy and the iconic 'Austintatious' mural near the University of T ...

Guy Juke William De White (born September 4, 1951), better known as Guy Juke, is a Austin, Texas–based graphic artist and musician. As a poster artist he created memorable imagery for nightclubs such as Armadillo World Headquarters and was one of the 'A ...

, Ken Featherston, Jim Franklin, Danny Garrett, Henry Gonzales, Bill Narum, Dale Wilkins, and Sam Yeates. Directions Company closed down in 1974. In 1976, priest, John Rodgers and Sam Yeates founded an arts collective called Sheauxnough Studios.

Obituaries

An obituary in

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

described Priest:

Besides art, Micael was a master of the story. He was never short of them. The city and the state it capitalized; citizens of all stripes and denizens of cafes, bars and clubs; the countryside and its critters; the music and the musicians – especially these – were all grist for his mill. Stories constituted the air he breathed, with the exhale always more than the inhale. Always. He was a counter-cultural sage, and frequently dressed the part. So much so, in fact, that in his later years, he cut the striking figure of a hippie Gandolf, parting the air with a yarn, and the pavement with his serpentine walking stick. Colorful in language, and wicked smart in perception, he crafted tales that still glow like embers in deep memory. When you observed the Priest story train passing, a chuckle was always the caboose.

Kerry Awn, a member of the Amadillo Art Squad, described Priest in an Austin Chronicle obituary:

Priest was a walking, talking, real-life cowboy hippie cartoon character artist. Ink ran through his veins. When he came to town he changed everything just by being himself. He never heard a story he couldn't embellish, an experience he couldn't top, nor a chance to let you in on a pearl of wisdom spoken in a down-home manner so thick you might have thought it was all an act.

Biography

Obituaries

See also

References

External links