Craig Kilgore is a unique individual, being gifted with an artistic heart and eye but with a knack for math and science. This use of both the right and left brain has played well together, providing him with a solid means of employment while enabling him to follow his artistic side.
Kilgore, who hails from Indiana, has a zest and love for Route 66, its signage and its neon artwork. He visited Amarillo recently, where he featured his pop-up exhibit, “Before 100: Route 66 Now.”
He spoke to interested viewers of his collection of printed and framed photos, along with his collection of “zines,” which are self-published books mostly about his adventures on Route 66 but also include trips to Havana, Cuba, and other interesting places.
He described zines as self-published poetry, comic books, memoirs, short stories or whatever someone cares to publish.
“You’re in control, and it’s a format where you can basically do whatever you want and it’s pretty fun,” he said during a break in his showing at Old Tascosa Brewery on Saturday, March 7. Kilgore said he preferred the format of zines because when he’s showing photos, they’re spread over many states, but he can show it together. And his zines are parts of his work that covers the past 25 years.
“There’s one on Havana and Hong Kong, for example,” he said, “so it’s like seeing 12 to 15 pictures together in a good, affordable way.” He explained that the zine wasn’t expensive and that people could take copies with them and enjoy it for a fraction of a cost of a bound book.
As far as photography, Kilgore generally does streetscapes, signage, the human landscape and remnants of what we bring to the environment. “I enjoy the stories — it is similar to an image that holds the text within,” he said.
The artist said that he did Route 66 while an undergrad at Purdue University, where he went into engineering, because it was a way to quickly find a lot of old neon signs, which is his first love. He Kilgore said his parents, a policeman and teacher, urged him to go into a “good solid job.” He worked as an industrial engineer for a while but felt like he was losing his imagination a bit.
The artist said that he did Route 66 in grad school at Indiana State, because it was a way to quickly find a lot of old neon signs, which is his first love. Kilgore said his parents, a policeman and teacher, urged him to go into a “good solid job.” He worked as an industrial engineer for a while after undergrad at Purdue University, but felt like he was losing his imagination a bit.
He later studied for his MFA in photography and printmaking at Indiana State University. “I started taking art classes on the side and eventually got into grad school,” he said. “I still maintain engineering jobs to earn money.”
During a 2023 photo road trip is when he said, “It occurred to me that my work 20 years ago was Route 66 stuff, and I wondered what it would be like now.”
He tried teaching middle school, but he needed a good benefit package so he began to work at Costco part-time. He found that their flexibility suited his needs. Kilgore said that because he then had a flexible job, he was able to take off four weeks. He lives two hours east of Chicago, in South Bend, Indiana. “I drove from Chicago to LA, then back to Chicago.” In 28 days, he took a lot of photos and learned about the centennial of Route 66.
“I didn’t even know that was happening,” he said.
It turned into a stimulant to keep the project going, not only in the zine format, but also through a solo show in the fall in Indiana. A lot of the photos at his showing at Old Tascosa Brewery in Amarillo were from that solo show.
Kilgore said that when he made his way to Amarillo, he made friends with “Crocodile Bob” Lyle, one of Sixth Street’s local ambassadors. Lyle got Kilgore interested in doing a pop-up show and mentioned Old Tascosa as a larger venue to show his art.
And, it just so happens that owner Matt Welch’s wife, Amy Von Lintel, is WT Professor of Art History and co-owner of the brewery. So, while Kilgore was in Amarillo, he spoke to two of Von Lintel’s classes at WT about his artistic involvement and mission.
Kilgore said he had read about urban studies and some sociology, anthropology and other works and came to realize how in a city block or space of land, you could see a lot of history, both inferred and some in remnants, which his photos capture.
He termed it as “a living embodiment of resilience against some of the expansion or modernization” — such as the interstate program, which bypassed the small Americana cities and supposedly streamlined the highway system.
From Amarillo, Kilgore is traveling to Flagstaff and then on to Santa Monica, California, before he heads back east. He also intends to come back through New Mexico and visit with Joanne Thompson, owner of the former Apache Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. His adventures have also included the Jackrabbit Trading Post in Arizona and other unique places.
In relation to other Route 66 stops, Kilgore said there really is a lot of variety on the main strip on Sixth Avenue in Amarillo.
Other zine adventures he has pursued include dollar stores and the eerie wind turbines. “There were so many Dollar Generals, which seem to have exploded in the last 20 years, that I had to stop taking pictures of them.” He said people had compared his work to Ed Ruscha, a pop artist in the ’60s and ’70s based in Los Angeles who had a famous piece based on an Amarillo Standard gas station.
From Amarillo, Kilgore is traveling on to Albuquerque for a showing March 14 at Marble Brewery in the downtown area, to be followed by a two-day showing at Tucumcari’s Apache Motel lobby gallery March 27-28.
The pragmatic artist hopes to combine his work in a more coffee table piece in the future, he said. Meanwhile, he continues to travel the route and document his adventures.
This story has been updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Engineer turned artist finds inspiration on Route 66
Reporting by Nell Williams, Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
