• titled: "Easy Rider" (lower left, in black pencil)
• signed: lower right, in black pencil; numbered lower left, in black pencil
• medium: lithograph in five colors, printed by Bruce Porter at Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; Tamarind chop lower left; printer's chop lower right
• dimensions: bleed image - sheet and image size: 29 x 22" (73.7 x 55.9 cm.)
• edition: 18 prints, 1 artist's proof, 1 bon a tirer, 1 color trial proof, 2 Tamarind impressions, 5 Roman numbered proofs (on white Arches paper); unless noted, on calendered Rives B.F.K. paper
• date published: 1972
• edition number: Tamarind 72-191a

Personal Reflections, by Arthur Secunda

Of my over 350 different graphic editions, Easy Rider is easily one of my three or four all-time favorites in terms of its inspiration and coming together of form and content.

I did it at a time in my life (Oh those, wonderful 60s) when I was somewhat connected to actor Dennis Hopper, whose monumental photo-assemblages I admired: as well as sculptors Charley Frazier, Ed Kienholz, Gordon Wagner and Clare Falkenstein. Dennis' movie had just appeared and, at the time, Rider seemed like a breaking out of rigid convention into anarchistic personal freedom and happiness. In any case, the humor I feel it conveys, even now, is authentic. And the technical details in the drips and washes of the tusche pulled from the stone represents a remarkable feat of printing which, at the time, very few ateliers besides Tamarind were capable of mastering.

Personally, I was (and am) far from the motorcycle mentality, though former artist friends such as John Gallagher spoke of its hedonistic pleasures to me so that I can see the possibilties of adrenalin abandon. Nevertheless, the humorous limp animated movement combined with the noble, coloration and determination of the rider, make this imaginative print accessible on a literal anecdotal level as well as being of interest to a more serious technical and esthetic sensibility.