American Road Magazine American Road magazine Winter 2018 Back Issue

This issue of American Road takes art as its central theme. It’s a subject we’ve long wanted to showcase, because this magazine has benefited from the talents of remarkable artists since its inception: Route 66 painter Jerry McClanahan was with American Road at its start, and no one better captures the Mother Road’s spirit with a brush. Itinerant “World’s Largest Things” artist Erika Nelson developed our “Think Big” department in 2009, and she recently opened a museum in Lucas, Kansas. And author and animator Tony Craig—who’s been a contributor since 2007—understands the flavor of country stores down to the last Frito. We interview each of them in “Three Artists in Search of the Slow Lane.”

In another life, our Executive Editor wrote two books about roadside attractions. He revisits those days in “Totem Pole Park, which examines the oldest folk art environment in Oklahoma. From there, we drop by Dr. Evermor’s Forevertron , Edward Leedskalnin’s Coral Castle, Howard Finster’s Paradise, and Kenny Hill’s Chauvin Sculpture Garden on excursions that are empyrean, medieval, sacred, and apocryphal—and, occasionally, all at the same time. It’s an eclectic mix that serves as the perfect introduction to the results of our “Picture-Perfect” Photo Contest, which asked readers to show us their idea of art. Add a restaurant filled with funky burls, a Kansas town graced with a prodigious van Gogh painting, and a motel with pop art at the bottom of its swimming pool, and you have an issue that features everything but Salvador Dali’s flaming giraffes.