Having grown up visiting modern art museums pondering Salvadore Dali and Calder, and recently coming from an expressive community like San Francisco, I probably have a broader acceptance of 'art'.
In the late fall, we were driving to mom and dad's house, east on I-4, when I noticed a pile of airstream trailers on a lot beside the highway. Airstream trailers originated in the 1930's with the Airstream Clipper built of aluminum plated trailer,rounded to cut wind resistance and save gas. Frank Bates owns an Airstream dealership and decided to use old, unusable trailers to build his own version of Cadillac Ranch . Cadillac Ranch is a group of ten cadillacs 'planted' in the ground, nose down, in 1974 outside of Amarillo Texas.
Frank's plan was to 'plant' 8 Airstream trailers alongside I-4, near his dealership. By January, the planting was complete and drivers started see 'Airstream Ranch' for the first time. In California, this would be considered an interesting art display, but in the rural area between Tampa and Orlando, the locals started grumbling. They didnt like the growing interest and traffic the new art was causing.
Their compliants have driven the Hillsborough County Code Enforcement Board to take action. They have cited Frank with 4 code violations including accumulating junk. And he is being fined $100 per day since mid April.
I don't really find Airstream Ranch out of the ordinary along I-4. After all, one drives past dinosaurs, a crashed airplane (planted in the ground), Micky-eared electrical poles and more, including Hooters billboards with images of large...well you get my point.
I find the airstreams quite clever, fun, and even... artistic! Go Frank Bates! I hope you beat those code enforcers. It will be a win for Florida's cultural growth.
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