Guy Colwell

Guy Colwell (born March 28, 1945 in Oakland, CA) studied art at the California College of Arts and Crafts. After a two year stint working for Mattel, he was arrested for draft resistance and was sentenced to two years in jail. His experiences there were the genesis of his Underground Comix series, "Inner City Romances". During the turbulent 60's scene in San Francisco, Colwell worked as an ilustrator for the underground paper, Good Times. [http://lambiek.net/artists/c/colwell_guy.htm]

After this creative period marred by drug abuse, he worked for Rip Off Press as a colorist. Upon hearing of a cross-country peace march (The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament), he took a nine month leave of absence in 1986 to join what was touted by its original organizer, David Mixner, as a major event in American history. While on the GPM, he helped draw route maps for the marchers as well as creating art depicting marchers in their everyday lives. His route maps and drawings are part of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. [http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/DG100-150/DG147/DG147GPM.htm]

He currently is married and lives in Berkeley, CA, where he devotes himself to creating personal and political art. His most recent painting, "Abuse" is his depiction of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. [http://www.nobeliefs.com/abuse.htm] This being Colwell's most controversial work. Lori Haigh,the owner of the San Francisco gallery where it was exhibited received death threats (recorded on her answering machine) and was physically attacked. Her gallery also received damage from unknown persons, causing it to close permanently. [http://www.capogallerysf.com/]

Although Colwell began as a commercial and comic book artist, he today remains true to his artistic training and political calling. Rip Off Press published a collection of his art between the years 1964-1991, "Central Body: The Art of Guy Colwell". [http://www.lib.msu.edu/comics/rri/crri/colt.htm] Whether or not one agrees with his politics, Colwell refuses to back down from relating his personal view of reality.

Some of his artwork is shown in his internet gallery Atelier 9 [http://www.atelier9.com] .