29 Palms resident Casey Niccoli speaks on viral Jane’s Addiction story

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“People don’t even know that’s my artwork and my heart is connected to it,” Niccoli said.

Artist and Twentynine Palms resident Casey Niccoli may not be well-known, but her creative contributions to a trailblazing rock band are finally being recognized. And it’s just the beginning of her story.

Niccoli played a pivotal role in shaping the visual identity of alternative band Jane’s Addiction. She not only crafted the striking sculptures for the covers of the band’s early acclaimed albums “Nothing’s Shocking” and “Ritual de lo Habitual,” but also conceptualized the titles for both. Her creativity extended to taking the photos featured in the inner sleeve of “Nothing’s Shocking” and directed the music video for “Been Caught Stealing,” which earned an MTV Video Music Award in 1991.

In July, Niccoli made waves when her guest article on HuffPost went viral. It marked the first time she publicly addressed her role as Jane’s Addiction’s artistic collaborator and her erasure from the band over 30 years ago.

It all started with the ‘Ritual de lo Habitual’ album art

The article was in response to a May Instagram post by bassist Eric Avery after the band discovered the papier-mâché piece that was the cover of the 1990 album “Ritual de lo Habitual.” The post included a picture of the band hovering over the piece of art in a storage unit in Los Angeles, and included a caption that simply read “An amazing historical artifact was unearthed today. #janesaddiction.” Avery made no mention of Niccoli, the piece’s creator, in the post.

During a recent interview with the Desert Sun at her high-desert home, Niccoli expressed feeling nervous about being interviewed — so much so that she turned down several offers from other publications. Even though she’s a reserved person, Niccoli said the HuffPost article has received welcomed — and overwhelming — attention that compelled her to tell her story.

“I needed to have my voice heard, it felt like I was stuck in this place where it was hard to move forward because there was a lot of pain and trauma attached to my past,” Niccoli said. “People don’t even know that’s my artwork, and my heart is connected to it. Not only do I not have access to it, but I’m also not given the respect of being notified. It was missing and not stored properly. Had I been involved, maybe it would be preserved in a museum, but instead, it’s sitting in some storage unit that isn’t even climate-controlled. It’s deteriorating and I don’t have any say.”

According to Niccoli, she’s been in touch with members of Jane’s Addiction since the article posted, but questions the rectitude of the members who contacted her. “It feels sincere,” she said. But the one person she hasn’t heard from is her former romantic partner and Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, who, Niccoli said, she doesn’t anticipate communicating with anytime soon.

Niccoli said she was approached by a friend, an editor at HuffPost, to write the article after making her own social media post. It was held for a month while the publication’s legal department went through it to examine documentation and other items she submitted. She almost withdrew the article out of frustration when HuffPost reached out to Farrell for comment, which she understood is an ethical practice in journalism, but still made her upset. (Editor’s note: The Desert Sun also reached out to Farrell for comment but didn’t receive a response).

“I was like, ‘This is my essay and he gets to comment on it? Hasn’t he been commenting enough? It’s my turn to tell my story. They told me ‘This is just what we have to do.’”

Farrell never commented, and the article went up and immediately began circulating.

Finding a medium at a young age

During a tour of her Twentynine Palms home, Niccoli referred to it as a “mobile art studio.” Collage has been her preferred medium since her teens growing up in Bakersfield, and she explained the inspiration comes from graphic design. Even though she’s also an oil painter and videographer, she operates on a “different frequency” when she works with repurposed images and materials that tell a story.

There were two collages in progress on her kitchen table at the time of our interview, accompanied by a large grid, art knives, glue and other various art supplies. Both artworks featured a mix of gothic architecture, religious imagery and more, which espoused messages of spirituality, healing and the natural world at a first glance.

“I’m not thinking about it, just doing it, and it ends up becoming my story every time. I look at it when it’s finished and say ‘This is me.’ It’s like rising up through the ashes or something,” Niccoli said.

While discussing her early collage work, she shamelessly described some of it as “crude,” but meant it in a purposeful tone.

Like Michaelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” or Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party,” the sculptures Niccoli created for the first two Jane’s Addiction albums were provocative, but offered a deeper look at a taboo theme or subject — which is why they were met with controversy amid the formative years of the Parents Music Resource Center.

Nine record store chains refused to carry the 1988 album “Nothing’s Shocking,” which showed two nude female conjoined twins with their heads on fire on the cover, and was later reissued with a brown paper shielding the image. The other for “Ritual de lo Habitual” featured two papier-mâché naked women and a man and received the same response upon its release in 1990, but a “clean cover” version with the band’s logo, album title and a message about freedom of speech was also released.

The collages and art Niccoli creates now emit a more healing and spiritual aesthetic with some captivating eccentricities and tasteful stimulus. She revealed a collection of vintage UFO magazines and religious books she’s clipped images from. One in particular was “Golden Sunbeams,” which appeared to be from the early 19^th century and a Christian religious text for teenagers.

“I destroy all books” Niccoli quipped, adding that she orders duplicates of the ones she likes and couldn’t diminish the authenticity of the vintage paper, fading and textures of the clippings by making digital copies. Another motif she loves is roses, adding that there’s an “aesthetic and beauty” the perennial flower radiates in her work.

The work on a collage is finished after Niccoli considers the various placements to see if the story she’s trying to tell is coming through, or if she needs to rearrange an image before permanently placing it onto the board. Sometimes she photographs it before picking it apart or reconsiders what’s in the small box of rejected images, but she doesn’t like to intellectualize too much or consider how the art is received.

This was clear while observing her examining one of the collages, and she was rearranging or inspecting some of the clippings she had.

“If I think about it too much, I go into a bad place. I can play around and it might not look like this once I’m done, and it could be completely different because I’m going to move it around to find that sweet spot. Sometimes I don’t even know what the story is going to be,” Niccoli said.

‘A wonderful and validating experience’

After reading the HuffPost article on the morning it went up, she had an underlying fear of being misunderstood, taken out of context and thought some readers would think “Why does something that happened to her 30 years ago matter now?” Niccoli became more anxious after reading the comments section and noticed a handful with negative feedback.

As time went on and the article continued circulating through the internet, there was an outpouring of positive responses and people reaching out to her on social media, which she described as “a wonderful and validating experience.” She was aware of a small group of people that were fans of her work, but hearing from the many who never heard of her expressing support also lifted her spirits.

When Niccoli went to the Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where her art is currently featured in an exhibition, several women showed up to support her, and was surprised to find red dots next to her work representing those pieces were sold.

The only explanation Niccoli made in her article for the 1993 split with Farrell was leaving their home with “a ferocious drug habit and the clothes on my back.” She settled for an undisclosed small sum of money from the band out of court as compensation in exchange for signing away all rights of the art, royalties and future profits.

“I had given my all to Perry’s career, only to be locked out of our home and treated like the enemy. It felt like I vanished. Losing a significant relationship is one thing, but losing access to my creative home, and the comforts that go along with that, felt like a betrayal that would continue to haunt me for years to come,” Niccoli wrote in the July article.

While recovering from addiction, Niccoli struggled with the “chaos” of her overthinking brain, trouble sleeping and said it took her two years to feel like herself again while maintaining sobriety as a single mom of two children and a full-time job.

After sharing her story at a drug rehabilitation shelter for women in New Jersey at the invitation of a counselor, six of the residents gave her handwritten letters telling her how much they appreciated her, which she described as “powerful.”

“I feel grateful and fortunate that I don’t want to go back (to addiction) because I see people my age relapse and die, and I’m just like ‘How did that happen?’ I’ve had that obsession lifted and have a spiritual presence in my life, and I want everybody to have that feeling,” Niccoli said.

Making art that brings people together

Even though talking about Jane’s Addiction comes with a blend of happy and traumatic memories that are difficult to talk about, she expressed humility and gratitude for her contribution. Her involvement with the band wasn’t motivated by fame or money, it was the joy of collaborating with Farrell, who she met in 1983, two years before starting Jane’s Addiction.

Jane’s Addiction was more than a band performing a blend of punk, funk and goth music in the Los Angeles music scene; the band was a conceptual artistic and political movement.

“We put our minds together and could do these amazing art pieces to tell a story connected to the music, and it all flowed. It resonated with people and it was powerful.”

Niccoli described Farrell as an “amazing businessman” with a vision of bringing young people together during the turbulence of the cultural and political conservatism under former President Ronald Reagan, and he encouraged them to open their minds and become involved in the world .

“I think back on those times and they were the happiest times of my life. There was so much love and creativity flying out of us. We worked well together, and there was a lot of harmony, dedication, heart, soul, blood and sweat that went into that,” Niccoli said.

Several record companies showed interest in Jane’s Addiction early on and Warner Bros. signed the band in 1987 but announced a break-up in 1991. There were rumors of infighting over artistic direction, drug addiction and more. Farrell started Lollapalooza that year as a touring version of a European festival in amphitheaters in the U.S. that would also be a grand farewell party.

But the celebrations didn’t just feature an eclectic mix of music by bands such as Ice-T and Body Count, Butthole Surfers, Nine Inch Nails and more, it also included an art fair, various vendors and political booths. At the time, Farrell didn’t realize the impact Lollapalooza would have on inspiring the modern-day music festival. It was a period when dissonant activist groups such as Greenpeace and the National Rifle Association were passing out pamphlets to Generation X to get their individual messages out, and it was in the name of civility, community and participation.

“It had to be a conversation. We can’t have conversations now, but at that time, there was the possibility we could talk and both sides can have their say and hear each other,” Niccoli said. “There’s so much division (now) and you only hear one message, which is the one you want to hear. There’s a lot of unconscious people on the planet and their frequencies seem low to me. It’s hard to rise above all the muck and just be a loving, peaceful presence.”

A retreat turned forever home

In a remote part of Twentynine Palms, Niccoli’s pink and turquoise home, which was built as a homestead, sits at the end of a dirt road. She purchased the house in 2015 before heading to Texas to finish her college education and planned to move in after retiring in the future. But during the pandemic in 2020, she moved there full-time after losing her job in Los Angeles.

One bizarre feature that came with the house is a headstone for the original owners of the property, and it’s uncertain whether or not they are buried there but has been contacted by relatives asking if they could have the marker and said she has no plans to have it removed from the property because of the welcomed peculiarity.

After the HuffPost article and the overdue credit Niccoli has received, she cries a lot of “happy tears” after finding her voice. Looking back on the difficulty of raising two children, a son and daughter who are both in their early 20s and living on their own, she has a “real relationship” with them both and was grateful to “be the mom I always wanted to have.”

“I love meditating and believe in prayer. I’m a believer in a power greater than myself and feel in everything I do, that power works through me. I don’t think I could do it without that,” Niccoli said.

There’s exciting things on the horizon for her art. Niccoli is confirmed for a February residency at 309 Punk Project, an art, music and culture center in Pensacola, Florida, and she’s organizing an upcoming show in 2025 at La Matadora Gallery in Joshua Tree.

When asked if the quote “The way out is through” by poet Robert Frost is appropriate for her story, she said “absolutely.”

“I feel healed in a way I’ve never felt before, and maybe the problem was I was afraid,” Niccoli said.

Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.