Cadillacs in the Mist II
by Joan Carroll
Title
Cadillacs in the Mist II
Artist
Joan Carroll
Medium
Photograph - Digital Art
Description
I had planned on getting a sunrise picture at Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo TX, and sunrise is pretty early in the summer. So after getting up early and managing to get myself ready and out the door in time for official sunrise (and obviously not looking out the window first), there was nothing to do but carry on with the plan despite the dense fog! You couldn't see the Cadillacs from the road so if you didn't know they were there you would drive right by. During the daytime, there is a constant flow of visitors to the iconic Route 66 monument and they would no doubt arrive later. But on this morning, it was a bit eerie in the fog and I kept watching to see if anyone else would emerge through the mist for some photos, but no one did. Roadside America explains Cadillac Ranch best: "Standing along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3's fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza). They faced west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high for all to see on the empty Texas panhandle. That was in 1974. People would stop along the highway, walk out to view the cars -- then deface them or rip off pieces as souvenirs. Stanley Marsh 3 and The Ant Farm were tolerant of this public deconstruction of their art -- although it doomed the tail fins -- and eventually came to encourage it. Decades have passed. The Cadillacs have now been in the ground as art longer than they were on the road as cars. They are stripped to their battered frames, splattered in day-glo paint splooge, barely recognizable as automobiles." But still the people visit!
FEATURED PHOTO, Artists Best Five Artwork Group ABFA Group, 7/6/15
FEATURED PHOTO, 500 VIEWS group, 7/6/15
FEATURED PHOTO, ABFA Platinum group, 7/4/15
FEATURED PHOTO, The Road to Self Promotion group, 7/1/15
Uploaded
July 1st, 2015
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