Luke Martin "Julia's Flowers" Rose Grateful Dead Bear Limited Edition

About the Grateful Dead bears: Even if you are not a "Deadhead", you have probably seen these bears. A bear associated with the band first appeared in public on the back cover the Bear’s Choice album. Bob Thomas used a cartoon style bear doing a “dancing” motion. Owsley “Bear” Stanley later clarified that even though the bears look to be dancing, they are actually doing a high step march, but it's more fun to picture them dancing around so we can just pretend he didn't clarify that. After the album was released, the bears showed up on Owsley Stanley’s blotter art, which coincidentally were in heavy circulation at Grateful Dead concerts. So, people were tripping, seeing Owsley’s dancing bear art while on acid and simultaneously watching Grateful Dead, who had just released the album with bears on the cover. Understandably, the bear symbol became heavily associated with the band, and has come to represent the music, the energy, and the LSD.