By Ashley Mackin | SDUN Editor

After living with a friend who was bi-polar and refused to take medication, Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick began to draw animals to help with the sadness she felt. This led to a thriving painting career that will bring her to San Diego on Dec. 3 for her “420 Collection.” She spoke with San Diego Uptown News about the collection, the “original guys” and medical marijuana. Her show will be at Alexander Salazar fine art in downtown. For more information, visit http://www.limelightagency.com/Grace-Slick/news/san-diego.html

SDUN: How did your painting career get started?

GS:…I thought what a waste of a brilliant mind and it made me sad so I started drawing pictures animals, cause animals make me happy and a book agent, I was doing an autobiography at the time, a book agent said, ‘oh, why don’t’ you draw some rock and roll people for the book’ and I said no, that’s too cute. Oh, rock and roll draws rock and roll isn’t that cute. She said just do two so I said okay so I did, I don’t know, Hendrix and, who else, Jerry Garcia, and I found I actually liked it, cause I could bring out what I saw in their personalities or their persona, whichever one I was doing. I enjoyed it, so my accountant, oddly enough, introduced me to an art agent and it got started from there. But basically the impetus was making myself happy by drawing animals (laughs).

SDUN: Do you still experience painting as something that makes you happy, or is it work at this point?

GS: No, no, no. Even when I’m told what to draw – cause 50 percent of what I do comes out of my strange mind and the other 50 percent is what my agent knows will sell – I don’t mind being told what to do; it’s kind of a challenge. It never would have occurred to me to draw a lamp for instance, too boring, but I think ‘okay, how do you make a lamp interesting’ you know, it’s something you can chew on, so I don’t mind any of it.
But, if they said I’m sorry you can’t draw anymore, ever, I’d say okay, fine, I’ll be a set designer. I’m sorry, you cant be a set designer, okay, I’ll be a writer. I can do any of the arts I don’t really care which one it is. Except for dancing, I’m a klutz, but apart from dancing, I can probably support myself very well with the arts. You don’t want me doing your accounting, you don’t want me building rockets, you don’t want me doing brain surgery, you know, none of that, but any of the arts, I’ll pass. I’m not a genius, but I don’t suck either.

SDUN: How do you balance the privacy and intimacy of painting with the publicity of showcasing your work?

GS: Well I’m sort of used to it, because of rock and roll. Rock and roll is a very, well you have people all over the place, on the stage, in the audience, doing interviews, television, you know, so I’m used to that. And I don’t mind it, I like it…

SDUN: How do you feel about the 420 Collection?

GS: [Marijuana is] something that we’ve all known for a long time because we’re all drug 60s people, and the pharmaceuticals, I’m not putting them down because a lot of them do marvelous things… there are a lot that are really good, it’s a crap shoot because more people are addicted to prescription drugs than the street drugs. And they have side effects, as you know, because if you watch any television they’ll have ads for something that will cure a hangnail but you’re liable to get a heart attack. I mean, it’s just insane, the reactions you get from these pharmaceuticals are so violent and marijuana does not have that.

It’s the mildest of all the drugs and it helps about 15 different kinds of unpleasantness that people have physically. It helps cancer patients eat because they get sick with the chemotherapy, it helps anorexics eat because they cant, [and] it helps some people with certain kinds of pain. I mean its really an amazing drug with, the biggest side effect probably is that you might want a brownie…

SDUN: How does this collection convey that?

GS: Well it has – I made up a superhero – a bunny. He’s a rescue bunny, and he has a cape and everything like superheroes do and he has a picture of a marijuana leaf on it and its green and he flies around and hands a joint to a various people, one little girl is in bed, another one has several pictures of people who would benefit from marijuana and its just, one of them has a picture of them flying with his briefcase with a marijuana leaf on it into Washington D.C., so he’s going to sort of lobby, I guess for marijuana being made legal. So there’s this theme with the super bunny.

SDUN: Why did you choose the issue of marijuana to focus your art? I know you’ve been active with a lot of other causes, such as animal testing, so why is marijuana the focus?

GS: I mean I’m interested in all kinds of different things… I’m working on, well, I’m not necessarily a Christian, I’m not an anything, but I’m working on a picture of Jesus right now. I like all the original guys, in other words, Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, the original guys, all had wonderful things to say, and then as soon as they died, people start screwing up their message or interpreting their message they way they want it be interpreted… But I like all the original guys and their message is all the same, it just happens to be in different languages… So right now, I’m drawing Jesus, I’m may do a Buddha I may do Muhammad. I think [I’ll do] Muhammad looking at what’s going on right now with a sad look on his face, you know, same thing with a lot of these original guys, to just look down and go ‘oh my god’, that’s not what I meant at all. I like all kinds of different things, I’ll paint anything that occurs to me.

SDUN: What are your thoughts on the some of the recent actions against the medical marijuana dispensaries?

GS: It is tricky…The business of outlawing alcohol didn’t work very well either, it just boosted up the criminal community, which is the same thing that happens to all drugs when you make them illegal, it just boosts the criminal activity… another thing that’s real dumb about it, is it everybody’s having problems with money now, California in particular, could take care of its financial problems with one law – make marijuana legal. Grow it, and have federal, if you want, or state, regulations for marijuana, and the fact that we have such a huge agriculture business, we could grow – and we do anyway [laughs] – grow marijuana. But if it was legal, you tax the shit out of it, cause its not, unless its used for medical purposes, if you use it for fun, tax the bejesus out of, and then those taxes go back into money for the state…

SDUN: How does painting compare to making music?

GS: Well it’s a different form because making music with a band, obviously is a group activity and painting is solo. But I was the first child for nine years and I’m used to being by myself and reading and when I was little I would listen to the radio, cause we didn’t have television, that’s how old I am, and painting and dressing up as various historical characters and then I’d go out and entertain my parents and they’d put their hand up to their mouth and laugh behind their hand you know. I’d come out as Mozart and play something on the piano or then I’d be Mary Magdalene and then I’d be somebody else. But I’m used to being silent and entertaining myself.

SDUN: So who do you listen to?

GS: Right now I’m listening to… the Times… I love them, and they’ve gotten back together again, this is their first album after 20 years or something. So I’ve got that on the deck, in my car.

Also, a band called Del Castillo, from Austin Texas, cause I’ll listen to anything that’s Spanish. When I wrote songs I’d have to say ‘okay Grace, don’t make it Spanish.’ I don’t know what the attraction is for Spanish for me, quite frankly, I’m Norwegian, but, I have always loved Spanish dancing, Spanish architecture, Spanish music, Spanish government not so much, but there is a lot of Arab and Middle Eastern influence in Spanish music.

…. And a new girl singer the band is called Dead Sara, and her name is Emily Armstrong and she’s the best rock and roll singer I’ve heard in a long ass time.