The Daily Swarm

The Swarm

November 11, 2009

Parliament Artist Pedro Bell Hits Hard Times... Wants to Sell Original Works...

Andrew Flanagan

“It was psychedelic from a black perspective,” Bell said.

Bell, 59, designed the cover art for more than two dozen George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic albums. Under the name Sir Lleb (Bell backward), he wrote the albums’ liner notes, peppering them with cartoonish drawings, clever puns and names like “Thumpasaurus” and “Funkapus” that remain synonymous with Clinton’s music.

“George Clinton gets a lot of credit for the conceptual dimension of P-Funk, but actually Pedro Bell was a big part of that with his texts and imagery,” said Pan Wendt, co-curator of a gallery exhibition in Toronto called “Funkaesthetics” which featured Bell’s work.

He says he thinks Bell’s original paintings, stored at a friend’s house, are worth “a lot of money for sure.”

Bell’s financial situation, though, is increasingly bleak.

“We’re just looking for collectors at this point,” Tsuru said. “There’s no reason a world-class artist shouldn’t have patrons.”