“Truck Stop Buddies” commemorates the legacy and longevity of two singularly American institutions: pioneering puppeteer Jim Henson’s musical fantasy comedy Fraggle Rock, and Texas-based travel center chain Buc-ee’s.

The image originally came to life in conjunction with Erik Foss’s Fraggle Sticker Paintings series, which the New York City-based artist calls “an ongoing conversation with nostalgic Americana and the trompe-l’oeil effect.” Each installment in the series spotlights a different character from the Fraggle Rock franchise, which premiered on cable network HBO in 1983, the year Foss turned 10 years old. 

“I’ve been riffing on Mr. Henson’s creations for as long as I can remember. His work is one of many ways I talk about America and Americans through my art,” Foss says. “When you see any of the creatures he created, you instantly recognize them — even if you don’t fully realize why. They are as American as apple pie, and they continue to course through the veins of contemporary creative culture.” 

“Truck Stop Buddies” juxtaposes Foss’s kaleidoscopic, soft-focus portrait of intrepid explorer Gobo Fraggle with a photo-realistic sticker emblazoned with Buc-ee’s buck-toothed mascot Bucky Beaver, created in 1982 by the company's founder, Arch "Beaver" Aplin III.

“The blurred backgrounds in these Fraggle Sticker Paintings are, more or less, an attempt to recreate the feeling of a dream,” Foss explains. “Whether the viewer experiences them that way is ultimately up to them, but the concept itself is relatively simple: Americana existing within a specific time and place in society.” 

Translating Foss’s phantasmagoric aesthetic from canvas to silkscreen put POP!NK’s mettle to the test. “With this print, we were literally printing pixelated dust, nuanced with transparent ink,” says POP!NK’s Curtis Readel, who produced “Truck Stop Buddies” in partnership with fellow co-founder Zach Schrey and studio assistant Jordan Ferguson. “Every pixel needed to be the right hue, the right intensity, the right saturation and the right transparency. All those challenges were resolved because of our deep understanding of all that screenprinting offers, and the technical expertise to execute on those capabilities.” 

The reverse side of all copies of “Truck Stop Buddies” features a unique Foss drawing, signature and edition marks. The artist hand-painted a sticker on five embellished copies; placement, detail and sticker content differ from one to the next. 

“I hope the image takes the viewer somewhere they haven’t experienced before,” Foss says. “I hope it makes them feel the way I feel when I think about this particular moment in America.”

Foss first teamed with POP!NK in 2020 for the print “American Classic.” The self-taught artist,  born 50 miles northwest of Chicago in Elgin, Ill. and raised just outside of Phoenix, Ariz., is known for his work across a wide range of disciplines, including painting, collage, sculpture and photography. In addition to solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Sweden and Japan, Foss has featured in dozens of group shows dating back to September 2000, and his work is included in the permanent collections of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and New Paltz, N.Y.'s Dorsky Museum. His collectors include Takashi Murakami, Norman Reedus and Shepard Fairey.

- Jason Ankeny, @tenaciouslittlemonkey