A chance message from musician Phoebe Bridgers to Pasadena-based painter John Griswold in December 2022 grew into a creative partnership spanning instruments and album-related artwork. Bridgers asked whether Griswold had ever painted a guitar; the collaboration that followed has continued for four years.
Known for surreal scenes shaped by Renaissance and Baroque influences, Griswold has created several works for Bridgers, including a custom-painted vintage Gibson guitar, another instrument for touring, and artwork for the singer's upcoming album, Lost Weekend.
A guitar with its own visual language
For the vintage Gibson, Griswold worked with its existing marks of age rather than covering or altering them. He applied oil paint mixed with an alkyd medium, building a series of dreamlike scenes across the instrument's black surface. The images include a boy in a gown and armor, a sunflower-bearing hand, and symbolic objects connected by ropes and other motifs.
The largest scene draws on Griswold's longstanding interest in Dutch Golden Age painting. Its details sit alongside references that feel personal to Bridgers, creating an artwork that connects the musician's visual world with the painter's historical and surrealist influences.
Griswold's work for the project also extends beyond the guitar: his paintings appear in a lyric book and on other materials associated with Lost Weekend. Together, the pieces add a visual dimension to the album and invite listeners to interpret recurring symbols in their own way.
The collaboration shows how a familiar musical instrument can also become a site for storytelling. As artists increasingly work across creative forms, projects like this may open new ways for audiences to experience music through visual art.
