Bruce Bickford

Over sixty years old, Bruce Bickford still climbs trees every day and takes walks down the old back roads of his hometown in what is now SeaTac, WA, exploring the abandoned buildings that haunted him in his youth. His hometown holds significant weight in his artwork, replicating in clay the locations that have become part of SeaTac folklore (such as the sets of the locally-shot Twin Peaks or the town's derelict bunkers and bomb factories) or his own fantastical escape from home in Prometheus' Garden.

Bruce first began animating clay in the summer of 1964 at the age of 17. After graduating high school, he served in the military for three years from 1966 to 1969. He resumed his animation career after returning from Vietnam, and moved to Los Angeles in 1974 to search for work. It was at this point that Bruce met and began his six-year collaboration with musician Frank Zappa. This period fostered such work as the animated interludes for Zappa's concert films Baby Snakes and The Dub Room Special.

Bruce eventually moved back to Washington and continued working on his own personal projects. With his home just an earshot away from the location of the '90s TV series, Twin Peaks, Bruce began working on scale clay models of the show's sets. In 2004, the documentary Monster Road (directed by Brett Ingram) was released, digging into Bruce's childhood relationship with his father, and exploring the various influences that led to his vision.

To learn more about Bruce Bickford, visit: http://brucebickford.com.