Eastbound Route 66’ers will have already seen one of the Mother Road’s most well-known works of art, the famous Cadillac Ranch on the outskirts of Amarillo. There, ten Cadillacs are lined up in a row, and planted nose-down in a cow pasture. It’s art. It’s cool. It’s unique.
Okay, it’s not unique.
Some folks on the east side of Amarillo decided to capitalize on the Cadillac Ranch idea, and have a little fun with it at the same time. Next door to a sketchy motel-cafe, you’ll find five Volkswagen bugs, similarly buried in the ground. Yes, these too are covered with graffiti.
From the artistic point of view, this display lacks a bit of the beauty of the American-made display which it parodies. Instead of standing in the middle of a wide-open field, these bugs were simply planted by the side of the road, with buildings and power lines nearby, ruining the view. I suppose, though, the Bug Ranch was never meant to be interpreted as serious art.
Note: This trip was first published in 2008.
No comments