Album Art

Album Art is an essential factor in sharing a record with the world. It can serve multipule functions from communicating a message to attracting and building an audiance. It is an important element of presentation as well as a living symbol that has the potential to invoke emotion before the sound of the album is even heard. Below is the story of how Sundog's album art came to be.

In late summer of 2011 while attending a workshop with Joanna Macy at the Esalen institute in Big Sur California, I met an amazing artist named Elena Mitchell. Later that year, after seeing and connecting with her on various occasions in the bay area, I began to notice her incredible drawing and painting abilities. Whether creating a fabulous drawing at a party or designing flyers for community projects, the simple, yet profound elegance of her creations had a strong impact with myself and friends that witnessed her process and end product. Her designs really spoke to me, they felt so fresh, present, original, and beautiful. Greatly Impressed by her work, I asked if she would be interested in helping me with the cover art for the SunDog album. She joyously accepted and I gratefully rejoiced! We began to dialogue about the overall vision through email as I was living in Laguna and She in the Bay Area. I didn't have a clear picture of what exactly I wanted to present, though I had faith in Elena to create something evocative and beautiful that would resonate with SunDog. I trusted the Natural unfolding of the process. 

Afew weeks after our initial discussion and email sharing, she sent me the first version of the cover… I was ecstatic! The artwork was amazing, so vibrant, colorful, symbolic, and alive. As our dialogue continued and she began to create the next three panels, I was continuously surprised and immensely pleased with the designs. After three or so months of creative brainstorming via email with Elena, the artwork was complete and this was the Result 

Below are all four panels of the hard-copy release of SunDog, artwork by Elena Mitchell.