earth to holly

Exactly four years ago today, we were driving east on I-40, heading home on our cross-country trip.  We had heard about this sculpture called Cadillac Ranch, near Amarillo, Texas, so we decided to stop and see for ourselves.  The experience was truly surreal, with the sun beginning to set, the flat, wide-open field, and of course, the 10 half-buried, nose-down Cadillacs.  We were the only ones there, so that made it even more eerie.  The art is ever-changing as visitors from around the world put their own touch of graffiti on the cars.  We were there after the cars were supposedly painted pink in tribute to breast cancer victims, but as you can see, they were already covered with new layers of graffiti.  You can still make out a general underlying pink layer though.

The sculpture was created in 1974 by a San Francisco art collective called Ant Farm when they were invited by Stanley Marsh 3 (he felt Roman numerals were too pretentious), the owner of the wheat field, to create a unique piece of art for his ranch.  They came up with the concept of placing used or junk Cadillacs, facing west, half-buried at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza.   The original sculpture was moved a couple of miles west, to its current location, in 1997. 

What does it represent?  Don’t know exactly.  You tell me.