“It's an honor to be part of the display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As an avid guitarist I'm very excited about having a guitar I signed in the Hall. I want to thank Brainstorm and Anthem for their participation in the project.”
Kenny Brack
1999 Indianapolis 500 winner
Sponsored by Anthem one of the nation's largest health benefits providers, Brainstorm designed a 10-foot-tall fiberglass replica of a Fender Stratocaster® guitar. This public art project, entitled Blue Rocks, benefited United Way Services of Greater Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s education fund.
Blue Rocks.
An engaging abstract interpretation
of a seminal musical genre.
Brainstorm’s Blue Rocks honors the Blues as the foundation for almost all of today’s popular music, particularly Rock and Roll. From Ragtime to Jazz, to Jump, and Rhythm and Blues with its electric guitar, driving back-beat, and mellow saxophone, the Blues tell a story, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, often with emotional or cross-cultural significance.
Indy 500 winner, Kenny Brack lends a hand print and his signature to Blue Rocks at Brainstorm.
Of parallel significance in the art world, Abstract Expressionism was the first American art movement to achieve worldwide influence and laid the foundation for a number of major art movements. Its emotional intensity and spontaneous creation define art as a process rather than a product, also reminiscent of the evolution of the Blues. With its hallmark large canvases and a penchant for treating all areas of the piece with equal importance, it seemed the perfect aesthetic for this project.
Brainstorm brought these two uniquely American concepts together in their GuitarMania submission, Blue Rocks. Inspired by the musical genre and the unconventional art, they also wanted to bring a little bit of Indianapolis to Cleveland with the design.
When former Indy 500 winner and world-renown Indy Racing League driver Kenny Brack offered to lend a hand (his autograph and abstract expressionistic hand print grace the guitar), the story came full circle—in addition to racing cars, Brack is also the lead and rhythm guitar player for the Subwoofers, a bluesy Rock and Roll band that plays gigs across North America.
