THE SIGN ON 66
In the summer of 2021, I set out to create an art installation in the form of a billboard.
The Sign on 66 as it originally appeared in 2021.
INTRODUCTION
Growing up in western Oklahoma, I spent a lot of time traversing the state via I-40 and Route 66. Highway signs and billboards for motels, diners, and gas stations became a familiar and entrancing part of the landscape. The colors, typefaces, and visual tropes of those signs became embedded in my subconscious at an early age and still inform much of my work today.
When you say out loud, "I'd like to construct a billboard," it feels a bit crazy. However, with the help of an understanding wife and a brother-in-law who can build anything, we were able to bring it to fruition. Many of the themes come from a fictional place called Vita, which simply means life. I realize that the idea of a billboard with messages from a made-up town seems odd. That's sort of the whole point.
HOW TO FIND IT
When planning a visit, the sign is best viewed while driving west on Route 66 between Weatherford and Clinton, Oklahoma. The sign can also be viewed from westbound I-40 between mile markers 77 and 76. The sign is on the north side of the interstate.
If you visit, be sure to take a picture or selfie and use the hashtag #TheSignOn66
ARTIST STATEMENT
As I studied graphic design in college, I came to understand the process of design as "problem-solving"—connecting a message to a viewer in an effective and memorable way. Throughout graduate school, I became familiar with the world of semiotics: the study of signs and symbols. This gave me a new vocabulary and theoretical framework to understand the simple, yet profound, function of a sign. I came to learn that signs are more than just advertisements protruding from the horizon, but rather, powerful containers of meaning.
The signs from the billboard have been featured in several venues including The Depot Gallery (Norman, OK) and the Julie Marks Blackstone Gallery (OBU, Shawnee, OK).
Here's the Sign on 66 in its present state. The design is an advertisement for a feed mill in the fictional town of Vita. My daughter Nora is wearing her official "Vita Feed Mill" cap. The billboard is a commentary on our diet of news and information via a feed, and how that feed shapes so much of our worldview. The quote "The cows will tell you about the feed," comes from my grandfather E.J. Cox. He said this in reference to dairy cow production in an advertisement for Shawnee Dairy Feed (based in the town where I currently live). I found his quote to be quite prophetic about the time in which we now find ourselves.