Here is an update from Brian over at Phifty-Two Weeks!

A few years ago my wife and I were hooked on the Bravo network’s TV show “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist”. It was a reality show that pitted artist against artist in weekly challenges ending in a gallery show where one would be deemed the winner and receive a prize, one would be booted from the show, and all others would continue on to the next challenge. We were hooked. The show played for two seasons with different casts each season. It was season two that we loved! The art was great… but even better was the drama and shenanigans brought by one artist: The Sucklord. The Sucklord wasn’t the best artist, but he was so much fun to watch. You either loved him or hated him. Each artist entered the show with their niche art – some were painters, some sculptors, some photographers… The Sucklord was an artist who created statement pieces based on action figures (primarily StarWars). After the show finished I new I would some day create my own action figures. That day has come.

In 1973, long before Phish, American’s youth was introduced to Schoolhouse Rock!, or Grammar Rock. For you young folks who may not know about this, Schoolhouse Rock! was a series of educational, animated music videos. We were taught things like: Multiplication of 3 with the song “Three Is A Magic Number”, and about Adverbs with the song “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here”, and even the solar system with “Interplanet Janet”. byThis week’s installment are three characters from various Phish songs.

This week’s art installment takes three of the characters from Schoolhouse Rock! and rebrands them as Phish characters in my own series called Farm House Rock Friends. “Farmhouse”, Phish’s eighth studio album, was named after guitarist Trey’s recording studio housed in a barn in Vermont. These characters do not come from the “Farmhouse” album, but all live fictitiously at the Farmhouse. So who are these guys?

 

First we have “Character Zero” named after the song “Character Zero” from the 1996 album Billy Breathes. In Schoolhouse Rocks this character was named “My Hero Zero” and taught children the Multiplication through the powers of 10.

Next up is “Bill: the one who did the cover art for the Stone’s sucking in the 70’s LP” mentioned in Phish’s song “F–k Your Face”. Bill appeared on TV in “I’m Just A Bill” a song that taught about the Legislative Process.

The final member of the Farmhouse Rocks family is “Engineer B.O.T.T.” holding his bucket full of thoughts. B.O.T.T. stands for the Phish song “Back On The Train”. Engineer B.O.T.T taught kids about Conjunctions through Schoolhouse Rock’s “Conjunction Junction”.

Check out Schoolhouse video “Conjunction Junction”:

All three characters were created from polymer clay and painted with acrylics. Each character is also housed in a retail ready packaging.

Have a great week!

Please subscribe, follow, like, comment, and tell a Phriend about PhiftyTwoWeeks.

– BB

6/8/2014