Born in Newton, Massachusetts, after moving to New York City where, at 21 years old, he owned a gas station and two parking lots in Chelsea, this true long-haired product of the 60s traveled to Los Angeles in 1969– as a stowaway stashed in the bathroom of an airplane. Following his attempts to navigate L.A. life and getting a ticket for walking outside of a crosswalk, he decided to move up the coast to San Francisco.
While living in San Francisco, Axelrod turned his artistic bent towards creating Hip-O-Potamus Tees, which was the first-ever licensed manufacturer of silk screen and private label t-shirts for Rock ‘n Roll artists, concert tours and the music, film, and entertainment industry — as well as for the 1972-74 marijuana initiative.
Axelrod is a full-time artist, from which he donates some of the sales proceed to The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Axelrod paints – with teas — and has been told that he is the only artist in the world to paint with more than three colors of tea. In actuality, he has over 200 teas in his studio that he uses for color. He is also recognized for his assemblage pieces whereby he embellishes his artwork with found objects ranging in age from 500 years old to present day, finding these items in garage sales, in junkyards, on the street, and also among things he collected as a child.
With 23 states plus Washington D.C. – including Nevada — having laws on the books legalizing medical or recreational marijuana, Axelrod is busy turning over a new leaf where Hip-O-Potamus Tees in concerned. Axelrod continues to ‘Livin’ on the Fringes’ and no other person can boast a ‘Then and Again’ young at heart mantra.
