Sky Yellow / Sun Blue

Coming soon

Sky Yellow / Sun Blue

The Art of “Scarlet Begonias” and the Ecstatic Vision of the Grateful Dead

A coffee table book of forty works of art made over twenty-eight years, with essays and interviews from the people who know the Dead best.

A cloaked skeleton angel with a staff stands over a slain green dragon, beneath blue sunrays on a yellow sky; a beam of light falls from a golden disc.
The Vanquished — Flournoy Holmes, 2021

The book

A feast for the eyes, the mind and the soul

Over twenty-eight years, award-winning writer and filmmaker Steven R. Hurlburt commissioned artists to take on the most vivid image in “Scarlet Begonias,” the song’s upside-down sky. The result is a one-of-a-kind collection, and the definitive document on the song.

  • 40works of art
  • 28years in the making
  • 1song

Every piece comes with a statement from its artist and commentary from Hurlburt. Alongside the art are observations, essays and interviews from Grateful Dead archivists, biographers, musicians and scholars on the song, and on the Dead’s place in fine art and the wider culture.

The book is modern yet classic, cool but not trendy, and made with the highest-quality paper and production.

From the collection

The art

See the full preview →
A long-haired figure painted in blue-grey tones with a pale halo, one hand raised, against a bright yellow ground scattered with graffiti marks.
like an angel, standing
Nathan Verwey, 2020
A large blue sun with flame-like rays over a green ground, surrounded by purple fish, red birds and patterned leaves.
They All Dance
Dennis Sipiorski, 1995
A woman in a grass skirt climbs a palm tree above the tail fins of a green 1950s car; beyond are a motel sign, a surfer, flying saucers and a blue sun in an orange sky.
Wish You Were Here!
Dennis Larkins, 2023

Essays & interviews

Voices from inside the Dead world

Journalists, scholars and authors write about the song and what it means, including:

  • David LemieuxGrateful Dead Archivist and Legacy Manager
  • Jesse JarnowHost, Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast
  • Donna Jean GodchauxVocalist, Grateful Dead 1972–79
  • Dennis McNallyAuthorized biographer of the Grateful Dead
  • Rob BarracoKeyboardist
  • Nicholas MeriwetherExecutive Director, Grateful Dead Studies Association
  • Peter ConnersAuthor of Cornell ’77
  • Peter RichardsonAuthor of No Simple Highway

More about the essays →

Coming soon

Be first to hear when the book is out.

Release date to be announced