Legendary pop artist Ruby Mazur, best known as the creator of the original “mouth & tongue” image designed for The Rolling Stones, first used on the “Tumbling Dice” record sleeve in 1972, enjoyed celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his iconic image in 2022. Mazur now celebrates another milestone in his life, barely making it out of the fires in Maui alive with his three adult sons Cezanne, Miro and Matisse.
He lost his brand new art gallery right on Front Street in Lahaina, that was to have its grand-opening the very day the fires destroyed the entire town and lost over one hundred of the treasured paintings he created over the years.
Just several short weeks later, Ruby Mazur and sons have now relocated to Orange County, California and has his first ongoing local art exhibit the Ruby Mazur Laguna Beach Showcase, which opened October 5, 6 & 7th at the
Bill Mack Gallery at 574 S Coast Hwy, in Laguna Beach, CA. Mazur will take part in the Laguna Beach Art Walks of October and will be appearing in the gallery in-person every Saturday from 1:30-4:30.
Some highlights of Mazur’s work on exhibit at the Bill Mack Gallery will include large limited-edition giclee prints of his iconic oil on canvas painting “Rock-n-Roll Last Supper”, several all new variations of the iconic “mouth and tongue” image he created back in 1972, which has endured over the last 50 years…much like the band he designed it for, limited edition prints of many of his signature Rock-n-Roll portraits and a select group of his original Rock-n-Roll paintings that excaped the fires while stored at his Maui home.
Even though so many of his paintings perished in the Maui fires, select pieces of his work still exist in the other Galleries that represent him; on the Big Island of Hawaii at the Gupton Gallery, in Las Vegas at the Wyland Gallery in Planet Hollywood, at the Signature Gallery in the Venetian Hotel and in Lake Tahoe at the Wyland Gallery,
As many people around the globe saw, television crews who were able to get to Maui on those dark days in early August, including ABC World News and others actually met up with Mazur and his sons temporarily living in the back of two U-Haul trucks they had rented the day before. The cameras captured it all including the back of truck mattresses they spread out for themselves and Mazur’s 4 dogs, who also luckily made it out alive.
As Ruby Mazur himself explains “My 3 sons Cezanne, Miro and Matisse and I found a gallery space right next door to Mick Fleetwood’s hugely popular restaurant Fleetwood’s On Front Street, that we took and did a complete build out, shipping over 100 paintings from our Waikiki gallery.”
“At that time I was working on a brand new painting of Fleetwood that was to be on display on an easel in our front window. I went down to check out how my boys had placed the paintings on the walls and was just not happy how it looked so I told them to stay in the Gallery even if it took all night, which they were doing.”
”My home was up in Kula and the winds we’re going crazy like 100 mph and just throwing all my outdoor furniture around my property like they were toothpicks. I got a call from my boys saying “Dad the fires down here up on the hill are really looking scary, how’s it up by you”? I told them it’s pretty scary up here too. Then they told me they walked outside and saw downed power poles and I told them to get out of there and come home.”
“When they tried to drive out of Lahaina, police told them to turn around and go the other way because the road was being closed off. Luckily, my sons told them they were going anyway, drove as fast as they could around the cops and they were the last ones to drive out of Lahaina. Many others just burned to death in their cars. When they got home we were being evacuated with fires coming up my road.
“We couldn’t get a hotel room after calling 15 hotels, so we rented the two U-hauls and bought 2 blow up mattresses, blankets, pillows and bottles of water.” The four of us, with my four dogs, all slept in the U-hauls in the airport parking lot. Four days later, it was confirmed that Lahaina was completely gone, along with my never opened new gallery and over 100 of my paintings. I chose to drive up to see if my house was gone as well, crying as I looked at all those once so beautiful trees just burnt and down on the ground. When I turned my corner there was my house, still standing in the middle of shear chaos. I walked into my studio and low and behold there was my “Mick on Front Street” painting.”
From his new home in Southern California, Mazur reflects on the wonderful 18 years he spent living and creating on Maui, including how just over one year ago, announced the opening of his own signature Ruby Mazur Gallery in Waikiki, Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The 3,000 square foot Ruby Mazur Gallery was located right next to The Hard Rock Café on Beach Walk in Honolulu, which he then closed up to focus solely on the new gallery in Lahaina.
While Ruby Mazur may be best known for his “Mouth & Tongue” creations, pop art collectors have long been drawn to his rock-n-roll portraits of many of the top music artists of our time including Freddie Mercury, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Cher, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Amy Winehouse, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and so many more.
** Also please visit
rubymazurgallery.com.
