Amarillo, Texas seems like a place that art probably passed by a long time ago. When you're there, you're nose deep in the smell of hog poo in the morning and cow poo in the evening. It is brown in Amarillo. Just brown. When I moved there, I thought that I was going to have to give up on the idea of being immersed in the art world on a daily basis. I hit the local galleries that I finally found, Amarillo College's Gallery, and West Texas A&M's occasional shows. While I thought it was great to be seeing this creativity, it just wasn't enough for me. I voiced this to a coworker one afternoon and he told me I should check out the Cadillac Ranch and the Floating Mesa. He also asked if I had seen the street signs that weren't really street signs. I told him that I hadn't, but I would be on the lookout for them. I traveled west out of Amarillo and came to a National Roadside attraction, The Cadillac Ranch. The Cadillac Ranch is 10 Cadillacs half buried nose first in the ground. They represent every year that Cadillac changed their tail fin design. They are positioned to emulate the exact angle of the Great Pyramid at Giza and they were spray-painted a hundred colors. I marveled for a long time in that field. What loony bird would have the time, money and guts to pull off a project like this? The answer I would later find out was Stanley Marsh 3, who hired the Ant Farm to do the project. (He told me once that he prefers "3" to "III" because he loves movies and feels he is the sequel to his dad rather than merely the third man to have that name.) I went to find the Floating Mesa, which was a chore since I didn't know my way around very well at the time. This earth art piece is two dozen metal panels painted to reflect the color of the sky and set 20 feet below the top of a mesa. When you're at a distance, it looks like there's 20 feet of earth floating above the rest. I couldn't resist the temptation of trying to find Stanley Marsh 3 and telling him I loved his work. I found out where he lived and pulled up to the gate. It was closed and there was no intercom to call the house. I walked around a bit and found an exit road, so I went the wrong way on a one way street and entered the property. As I drove past peacocks, yard art, and a half buried VW Beetle, I thought I may be getting myself into a lot of trouble being here. I stopped at the house and got out. A thin man of about 60 came from the house and asked if he could help me. I asked him if he was Stanley Marsh and he laughed out loud. He said, "No, but you can find him in the bank building on Polk Street on the twelfth floor." I asked which office was he in on the twelfth floor. Foster laughed again and said, "He has the whole twelfth floor."
I nervously went to that building, went up to the right floor, and asked the receptionist if I could see Stanley. She called his personal secretary and she in turn called him. Stanley came out to meet me. He was a heavy man about as tall as I was with a fantastic Mark Twain mustache and glasses. He told me to follow him to his office which was heavily decorated in earthy African tribal decor. We sat and he asked what I needed from him. Without thinking I said, "I want to do artwork with you." He gave me a look of suspicion, then he smiled and told me to come back tomorrow for lunch. I came back the next day around 11:30 and we sat on his couch. He said, "If you had come to just ask for a job, I wouldn't have given you one. You said you want to do art with me, so I have some interview questions." I told him to fire away. The first question was "Would you break the law for art?" I said I already had. Second question: "Would you get naked for art?" (Thankfully, I never had too.) Deep breath...absolutely I would. Third question: "How do you feel about art galleries?" I told him that they were generally depressing and most people didn't even want to go to them anymore. Stanley smiled and told me I was hired and welcome to the The Dynamite Museum. Over the course of a couple of years, Stanley and I made Amarillo a living, functioning and accessible art museum. We painted many things colors they shouldn't have been, made soft canvas sculptures and left them in odd places, erected street signs, among many, many other things. We put up a sign on Route 66 that read "Road Does Not End". There was a sign that we installed at a bridge outside of town that spanned a deep and dry gulch with a picture of a sea monster on it...Sea Monster Xing. I also painted the Cadillac Ranch orange and black for Halloween, Pastels for Easter, and green and red for Christmas. It was a cat and mouse game with the local authorities and the two of us couldn't have been happier with our handy work. We even made the front page of the newspaper a couple of times. Doing art with Stanley under the umbrella of the Dynamite Museum was the most mind liberating experience I have ever had. It taught me that what people think art is, doesn't necessarily match what true artists think art is. I still believe to this day that art should be outside for everyone to see everyday, even if it's a big yellow traffic sign that simply says, "I Love You So Much". If you're in Amarillo, you can see some of the work that Stanley's mind created. I have the distinct pleasure of saying I helped.
If you would like to read more about my artistic adventures with Stanley, check out my other blog Oh, the things I do for art. http://ohthethingsidoforart.blogspot.com/
I nervously went to that building, went up to the right floor, and asked the receptionist if I could see Stanley. She called his personal secretary and she in turn called him. Stanley came out to meet me. He was a heavy man about as tall as I was with a fantastic Mark Twain mustache and glasses. He told me to follow him to his office which was heavily decorated in earthy African tribal decor. We sat and he asked what I needed from him. Without thinking I said, "I want to do artwork with you." He gave me a look of suspicion, then he smiled and told me to come back tomorrow for lunch. I came back the next day around 11:30 and we sat on his couch. He said, "If you had come to just ask for a job, I wouldn't have given you one. You said you want to do art with me, so I have some interview questions." I told him to fire away. The first question was "Would you break the law for art?" I said I already had. Second question: "Would you get naked for art?" (Thankfully, I never had too.) Deep breath...absolutely I would. Third question: "How do you feel about art galleries?" I told him that they were generally depressing and most people didn't even want to go to them anymore. Stanley smiled and told me I was hired and welcome to the The Dynamite Museum. Over the course of a couple of years, Stanley and I made Amarillo a living, functioning and accessible art museum. We painted many things colors they shouldn't have been, made soft canvas sculptures and left them in odd places, erected street signs, among many, many other things. We put up a sign on Route 66 that read "Road Does Not End". There was a sign that we installed at a bridge outside of town that spanned a deep and dry gulch with a picture of a sea monster on it...Sea Monster Xing. I also painted the Cadillac Ranch orange and black for Halloween, Pastels for Easter, and green and red for Christmas. It was a cat and mouse game with the local authorities and the two of us couldn't have been happier with our handy work. We even made the front page of the newspaper a couple of times. Doing art with Stanley under the umbrella of the Dynamite Museum was the most mind liberating experience I have ever had. It taught me that what people think art is, doesn't necessarily match what true artists think art is. I still believe to this day that art should be outside for everyone to see everyday, even if it's a big yellow traffic sign that simply says, "I Love You So Much". If you're in Amarillo, you can see some of the work that Stanley's mind created. I have the distinct pleasure of saying I helped.
If you would like to read more about my artistic adventures with Stanley, check out my other blog Oh, the things I do for art. http://ohthethingsidoforart.blogspot.com/
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