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Painter John Griswold has made several custom pieces for musician Phoebe Bridgers, including a vintage Gibson guitar she played on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The collaboration began with an Instagram message in December 2022 and has extended to other instruments and album-related items.
Painter John Griswold has created several custom works for musician Phoebe Bridgers, including a vintage Gibson guitar she played on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, according to a Hyperallergic report. The collaboration, which began after Bridgers contacted Griswold on Instagram in December 2022, connects his oil painting practice with instruments and other items tied to her music.
Griswold, a Pasadena-based painter whose work draws on Renaissance and Baroque imagery, told Hyperallergic that Bridgers sent him an Instagram direct message and asked whether he had ever painted a guitar. He recalled that she introduced herself as a fan. The exchange led to a working relationship that the report says has continued for four years.
The vintage Gibson guitar is described as Griswold’s most personal commission for Bridgers. Its small oil paintings sit on the instrument’s aged black surface, which both artists wanted to preserve rather than repaint or otherwise alter. Griswold used oil paint mixed with an alkyd medium to apply the images, according to the report.
The work extends beyond that guitar. Griswold has painted multiple instruments for Bridgers, including another guitar she has taken on tour, and has also worked on a lyric book, a vinyl cover and what the report calls a secret puzzle connected to her anticipated third solo album, Lost Weekend. The source does not give a release date or further details about those projects.
A Painted Guitar Becomes Part of the Performance
The guitar’s appearance on late-night television brought Griswold’s work to a wider audience and made a private artist-musician collaboration visible beyond the studio. For Bridgers, the instrument is both a working guitar and a custom artwork made in response to her personal creative direction.
The decision to retain the guitar’s aged finish also shaped the result. Rather than conceal its wear, the artists chose to build the paintings around the existing surface. That approach makes the instrument’s condition part of the visual composition, while the small painted scenes add a distinct layer without replacing the object’s familiar look. The report characterizes the commission as personal to Bridgers; it does not describe the images in detail or state whether the guitar has been displayed outside her performance.
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How the Collaboration Began
The working relationship started in December 2022, when Griswold received Bridgers’s message on Instagram. In his account to Hyperallergic, the painter said he found the request amusing because Bridgers was already a prominent musician. She asked whether he had painted on a guitar before, opening the door to a commission that would require the artists to translate ideas across different mediums.
Hyperallergic reports that the two worked together over four years to settle on a vision for the vintage Gibson. Griswold’s paintings and collages often draw on older European visual traditions, while Bridgers’s public performances and recordings provide the setting in which the instruments are used. The report links the guitar’s television appearance to an early-year performance, but does not specify the broadcast date in the supplied material.
““I remember she said ‘big fan,’””
— John Griswold, speaking to Hyperallergic
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Album Projects Still Under Wraps
The report identifies several album-related commissions, but it does not explain what the secret puzzle involves, show the lyric book or vinyl cover, or provide a release schedule for Lost Weekend. It is also unclear whether the additional painted guitar will appear in future performances or whether Griswold and Bridgers plan further collaborations.
The supplied account does not provide the precise date of the Tonight Show performance, the full imagery painted on the Gibson, or details such as the instrument’s ownership history. Those points should not be inferred from the description of the commission.
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Further Details Depend on Album Plans
The next public developments may come through Bridgers’s album-related projects or future use of the painted instruments. The source identifies Lost Weekend as her anticipated third solo album, but gives no confirmed release date or schedule for revealing the associated puzzle, lyric book or vinyl artwork.
For now, the confirmed public milestone is the guitar’s appearance on The Tonight Show. Any further information about the album materials, the instruments’ tour schedule or additional work by Griswold would need to come from the artists or subsequent reporting.
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Key Questions
Who painted Phoebe Bridgers’s guitar?
John Griswold, a Pasadena-based painter, created the custom artwork on the vintage Gibson guitar, according to Hyperallergic.
Where did Bridgers use the painted guitar?
Bridgers played the guitar on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, according to the report. It does not provide the broadcast date in the supplied material.
How did the artists begin working together?
Griswold told Hyperallergic that Bridgers contacted him through Instagram in December 2022 and asked whether he had painted on a guitar before.
What else has Griswold made for Bridgers?
The report says he has painted another guitar Bridgers has taken on tour and worked on a lyric book, vinyl cover and secret puzzle connected to her anticipated album Lost Weekend.
What is known about the guitar’s painting process?
Griswold used oil paints mixed with an alkyd medium. The artists chose to preserve the Gibson’s aged black surface and visible wear rather than alter it.
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