We drove through Amarillo on our way up and back down from Colorado. I didn't know much about Amarillo. In fact I thought it was a tiny tiny town. Turns out it's pretty big! Probably bigger than the town I went to college in and definitely the biggest town we drove through on our way to Colorado. Conveniently it's halfway there. Anyway, about the only thing I knew about Amarillo is that it's the home to Cadillac Ranch. On our way up we got into Amarillo after dark and then the next morning when we were leaving it was storming something fierce. So on the way home we had to make sure we stopped to see the Cadillacs. And it was perfect weather!
Cadillac Ranch is an art installation just outside of town in the middle of a field. It is totally open to the public and spray painting is allowed, and encouraged. It was made in the 1970's by a group of artists and funded by Stanley Marsh 3, who actually just passed away this past month. He owned the land it's on, and actually had to move the installation a few miles away from it's original location because the growing city of Amarillo was approaching. They had everything moved and put just as it was, including all the trash. I could talk forever about this (remember that Bachelors of Fine Arts I have?), but lets just say I think it is very cool for a variety reasons. It looks cool, the idea is cool, the interaction is cool. I like it.
We found a can of spray paint that still had some juice left in it and made our marks.
Why yes, I did spray paint a cat. Our tags are long gone by now. Apparently they painted all the Cadillacs the original colors not too long ago and they didn't last 24 hours before they were spray painted up again.
My inner art history nerd was in her happy place. It's a neat thing, and if you're in Amarillo I highly suggest checking it out, and bring some spray paint!
And that's all folks. The end of the vacation posts! Back to reality and the usual programming of very sporadic posting.
The rest of our vacation here!
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