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Bruce Charles Bickford (February 11, 1947 – April 28, 2019) was an American artist, animator, and filmmaker, who worked primarily in line and clay animation. historylink.org 2016-04-02 From 1974 to 1980, he collaborated with Frank Zappa in Los Angeles. Bickford's animation was featured extensively in the Frank Zappa videos Baby Snakes and The Dub Room Special. Zappa also released a video titled The Amazing Mr. Bickford, which was composed of Bickford animations set to a soundtrack of Zappa's orchestral music.
Bickford's animations depict surreal scenes based on his unique worldview. Often outwardly seeming to be somewhat disconnected from the world around him, Bruce Bickford's work is extremely subjective in its content and concepts, making for some disturbing and shocking imagery. Much of his video work depicted fast-moving, fluid-like transformations of human figures and disfigured faces into odd beasts on surreal structural settings with impressive camera effects (moving around within his stop-motion animation).
His life and work were featured in the 2004 biographical documentary film Monster Road, directed by Brett Ingram.
In 2006, he was working on Boar's Head/Whore's Bed (line animation, 4,500+ frames and counting), Tales of the Green River and Castle 2001, a feature film film which is animated using 3D shapes made out of bits of paper.
In 2008, Prometheus' Garden was released, a 28-minute short originally completed in 1988. Prometheus' Garden, BrettIngram.org The DVD-Video also features Luck of a Foghorn, a documentary about the making of the film. Luck of a Foghorn: The Making of Bruce Bickford’s Prometheus’ Garden
Bickford was the first guest to appear on the internet radio show Pussyfoot. Bruce Bickford, Pussyfoot
In 2010, he made rare appearances in several European cities following an invitation of the Brussels' Offscreen Film Festival and Nova Cinema.
In 2015, Bickford was working on a 500-plus-page graphic novel titled Vampire Picnic. It was stated at the time he was hoping to publish it with Fantagraphics. Bruce Bickford Vs. Time . 2015-01-03 A GIF Comic Tour of Bruce Bickford's Magical Home Animation Studio in SeaTac, WA . 2015-01-21 Announcing First Wave of 2015 Special Guests: Jim Woodring & Bruce Bickford
On September 1, 2015, Bickford's new animated feature Cas'l was released on DVD. DVD Review: Legendary Clay Animator Bruce Bickford’s ‘CAS’L’ Most of the original animating had been done from 1988 to 1997. Perpetual Motion Machine: A Bruce Bickford Retrospective . 2015-10-02 The film (or earlier versions of it) had previously been shown at various film festivals from 2008 onwards with live musical accompaniment, as a final soundtrack was not yet made. The Amazing Mr. Bickford. Cartoon Brew. 2008-08-15. CAS'L'shown with Monster Road . Salem Film Festival. 2009-04-24. Plastic Paper: Bruce Bickford's CAS'L with live score by MAHOGANY FROG, 2010-05-08. Feats of Clay: Bruce Bickford . 2010-05-27.
Bickford died on April 28, 2019, from cardiac arrest. He was 72 years old.
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