In October/November of 2007, Redlands Community College, in El Reno Oklahoma, hosted an exhibit of Route 66 paintings by artist Anthony Ross. As part of the series author Michael Wallis gave a lecture during the exhibit about the Mother Road including a personal guided tour of Route 66, from Oklahoma City to Tulsa.

I was thrilled to be a part of this exhibit and made a new friend in Michael. His is such a generous man with his time and a terrific gift for storytelling.

Michael Wallis Telling another facinating story of old Route 66.

I would also like to thank Denise Wynia-Wedel and the staff of Redlands Community College for asking me to exhibit my work. It was a great year of painting which gave me some new work to talk about and gave me some great ideas for the future.

The artist speaking to Redlands students.

The artist and the writer discuss the history of the Mother Road.

The Rock Cafe, a Route 66 icon.

(L) Dawn Welch, proprietor of the Rock Cafe and inspiration for the “Sally” character in the Disney/Pixar movie “Cars”, and (R) Michael Wallis, the voice of the “Sheriff” in the Cars movie share tales of Route 66 with tour participants.

The artist, me, at the Rock Cafe enjoying lunch.

I don’t know if there are any photos from inside the bathroom at the Rock Cafe but here is a shot of some of the “grafitti” on the walls (and some famous grafitti at that)…

Here is Michael Wallis in behind a wooden replica of his character from the movie “Cars”.

Photography ©2007 Anthony Ross. All rights reserved.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 12:28 am and is filed under Studio Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.