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TEXAS
LEGENDS
Quirky Amarillo |
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In
Amarillo,
Texas there is a driving force behind
many of the odd attractions that you will see here -- Stanley Marsh,
3. Marsh, responsible for the building of the popular
Cadillac
Ranch on old
Route 66,
didn't stop there with his "artistic endeavors."
"Art," Marsh
says, "is a legalized form of insanity, and I do it very well."
Stanley Marsh, 3 has made his mark on
Amarillo in more than one way. Though the
Texas millionaire is eccentric, he is also said
to be very down to earth, quickly disregarding the “III” as too
pretentious.
From the
Cadillac
Ranch, Marsh has moved onto other endeavors including a giant phantom
pool table that can only be seen from the air, to huge sculpted legs
south of the city, to a plethora of strange signs posted throughout
Amarillo. In any event, it's an
interesting ride!
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Art is
a legalized form of insanity,
and I
do it very well.
--
Stanley Marsh III

Jeez, Louise, I was confused when I saw this
sign.
Can someone explain what this means?
Kathy Weiser, May 2004.
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if you graffiti the
Cadillac Ranch as much as you like, you better not mess with his
eccentric signs.
True Texan in form, Marsh has had more than
a few run-ins with the law over his brand of enforcement. At one
point, it was said that he penned an 18-year old boy with a hammer
inside his chicken coop, when the boy was caught red-handed with one
of his signs.
Northwest of
Amarillo,
Marsh has painted a mesa to look like it’s floating, where hundreds of
sheets of plywood were painted sky blue on the side of a tall hill. Unless it's overcast, the resulting impression is that the summit is
floating. The mesa is located about 8 miles northwest of
Amarillo
via Tascosa Road.
Another oddity
is that of the Giant Phantom Soft Pool Table, who few have seen. The pool table sculpture is a 180-by-70 foot rectangle of dyed green
grass complete with 42-inch plastic balls. Saying "maintaining
good art should not be seen but dreamed about," he has kept his pool
table hidden somewhere on his thousands of acres of family land - seen
for the most part only by cows, cowhands, snakes and low-flying
airplanes. "I move it twice a year, on May Day and Halloween, or
whenever I feel like it," Stanley once said.
Marsh
is also the man behind 200 signs on display at
Amarillo
homes and businesses. Looking very much like colorful municipal signs,
they don't dispense traffic or parking rules, instead they offer a
variety of offbeat slogans. One reads "Strong drink." "What is a
village without village idiots?" asks another. There are dinosaur and
ostrich "x-ings," signs that read "Road Does Not End." There was a
sketch of Mona Lisa with the words: "Men have loved her." On Monroe
Street, a Marilyn Monroe sign.
While the signs are spread
out around
Amarillo
and the surrounding area, Old San Jacinto is the neighborhood where
you'll see them in the highest concentration. The ever-enigmatic Marsh
explained the signs, saying, "They are to be looked at."
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The signs are just
there, like the Rock of Gibraltar or the Statue of Liberty. They are a
system of unanticipated rewards." Marsh will provide the
official-looking diamond-shaped signs to anyone who will put them up on
their property.
See a whole bevy of Marsh's signs on the
next page.
Beyond
Cadillac
Ranch and the signs, Marsh's eccentric public art vision extends
south, to the junction of I-27 and Sundown Lane, where a sculpture of a
pair of disembodied legs greets passersby. Marsh commissioned sculptor
Lightnin' McDuff to build two large, trunkless legs of concrete reinforced
with steel, one 24 feet high and the other 34 feet high inspired by
the poem:
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Legs Sculpture between
Amarillo and Canyon,
Texas,
Kathy Weiser, November, 2005.
This image available for photographic prints
HERE!
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Ozymandias
I met a traveler
from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Bysshe Shelley,
1818
More
pictures of the Cadillac Ranch and Stanley's signs on the Next Page.
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Also See:
Amarillo, Texas
- Panhandle Cowtown
The
Cadillac Ranch
The Haunted Natatorium

Book your
lodging in Amarillo
right
HERE online
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Stanley Marsh signs are all over
Cadillac
Ranch.
This one is on Soncy Street, a couple of
miles south
of I-40. Kathy Weiser, May, 2004.
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
Texas
Postcards - From Houston to
Amarillo
and everything in between, you'll find both new and vintage postcards of
the Lone Star State. See
Route 66,
city skylines, and historic destinations by taking a virtual tour through
our many
Texas Postcards. Each one of these is unique and, in many
cases, we have only one available, so don't wait. To see them all, click
HERE!
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