World-famous songwriter and Nobel Prize laureate Bob Dylan three years ago painted a series of images that included more than a half-dozen images from Route 66 as part of his “The Beaten Path” series.
The number of images from the Mother Road has increased. The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, posted this image last week on its Facebook page:
You can buy a print of Dylan’s painting from Castle Fine Art for a cool $2,940.
In addition to the Blue Swallow, the new images by Dylan this year are from San Francisco, New York City, New England, Wilton, Iowa; and a Joshua tree in Southern California.
The Blue Swallow’s owners, Kevin and Nancy Mueller, said they had no recollection of Dylan staying overnight or visiting their Route 66 establishment. They surmised his painting was based on a photograph of the motel taken from around Christmastime.
Back in 2016 when Dylan’s “The Beaten Path” paintings initially were announced, we confirmed these images came from Route 66:
- Titled “Florida Country,” it’s a sign from the long-closed Paradise Motel in Tucumcari.
- Roy’s in Amboy, California.
- Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona.
- Barbed Wire Museum in McLean, Texas.
- Old Route 66 Truck and Auto Service station in San Jon, New Mexico.
- U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas.
- The Supai Motel in Seligman, Arizona.
Other Route 66 icons that could be added to the list since that time:
- The Snow Cap Drive-In restaurant in Seligman in a painting titled “Nowhere and Anywhere”;
- The long-gone Big 8 Motel in El Reno, Oklahoma, in “Staring at the Moon”;
- A motel sign in Kingman, Arizona.
This video that was created for the opening of “The Beaten Path” art show includes a lot of vintage footage of Dylan and the American landscape, plus one of his songs, “Tangled Up in Blue.” The video is quite evocative.
Dylan wrote an essay to go with the show. This excerpt stood out:
The common theme of these works having something to do with the American landscape—how you see it while crisscrossing the land and seeing it for what it’s worth. Staying out of the mainstream and traveling the back roads, free-born style. I believe that the key to the future is in the remnants of the past. That you have to master the idioms of your own time before you can have any identity in the present tense. Your past begins the day you were born and to disregard it is cheating yourself of who you really are.
(Image of Peter Ross’ painting of Bob Dylan painting by Martin Beek via Flickr)