David Welker secured his spot in Phish’s world 30 years ago this week with the release of 1993’s Rift, which featured his stunning painting on its cover packed full of subtle and thinly veiled references to the album’s songs.
“This album changed my life and had a huge impact on a lot of others as well,” Welker said in an Instagram post Thursday. “I’ll always be grateful for this chapter and the journey it launched. I worked closely with the band at a time when that was still possible. I stayed up late for a month straight while that was still a thing I could do.”
Read on to read a bit more about what came after Rift and hey, if you’ve been forwarded this email from a friend or found it elsewhere:
The passion that sparked
While Rift-inspired imagery plastered dorm room walls throughout the 2000s (Dry Goods released a poster in 2004), the oil-on-paper painting was officially reproduced in 2009 with a giclee run of signed and numbered copies originally priced at $345 — copies that are now going for a six month average of $7,865. There were just 100 released into the world.
And that’s that. “I can’t reprint it ever,” Welker said in an Instagram comment. “It’s just a part of history now.”
But history kept evolving.
In 2015, Welker revisted the theme and released “The Mound,” a commissioned run of 70 or so that now retails on the secondary for over $4,000.
"The commission was to revisit the story of Rift from a new perspective. I chose to imagine the house from the original piece decades later,” Welker explained at the time, according to Poster Drops.
He went on:
“I see it as a sort of ‘one possible future’ in the story where the main character chose to bury all his troubles and memories and turn away from love. The consequence is his shell of a home years later in ruins as a symbol of his bitter empty heart had he not chosen love. And the Mound looms in the distance as a testament to his troubles all buried but impossible to hide. So now we have the dawn rising on the tormented dream sequence from the original piece and early Spring offering some sense of renewal regardless of the choices the protagonist has made or not made."
Things began to democratize a bit after that.
2018’s “The Maze” allowed a wider pool of collectors a chance to bring home a Welker — including me, I’ve got one framed and on the wall.
2019 also saw the mostly releated “Conference on the Mound” — a print dropped after Phish’s Fenway shows featuring four baseball lizards on a mound. I’m probably missing a few others, don’t judge me! But I tell you all this just to set up the collecting opportunity that arrives next week: Welker seems to be introducing a new print in the series.
Bottleneck Gallery, which frequently releases Welker’s work, reshared Welker’s 30-year Rift Instagram post with the tease: “Something new from @welkerstudios next week…😬.” They clarified in a comment it would be “limited with variants.”
On his own Instagram, Welker shared a portion of what appears to be the print in question. I didn’t catch it, but someone in the “David Welker Studios - Updates & Releases” Facebook group did:
From what we can gather, it looks like Welker’s returning to the Maze multiverse with a illustration of a path (“And I take a wrong turn and I'm on the wrong path…”), a mound, and that shell of a home on a hill.
It's time, time, time
Welker hasn’t announced when, exactly, this will drop.
There was some chatter in the groups though that this coming Wednesday, Feb. 8, on David’s web store will be the place. I’d throw a meeting in your calendar for 1 or 2pm ET. I’d also recommend watching David’s Instagram and signing up for his and Bottleneck’s newsletter to know for sure.
Good luck!