Route 66 in the News
Artist Bob Waldmire Celebrates 66
2004-10-18 18:35:18
Bob Waldmire's other car is a house.
The vintage 1960s school bus, complete with a wooden upper extension, rain gutters and solar panels, serves as Waldmire's home. But the house on wheels stays put when Waldmire takes to the road, which he often does, in either his trusty 1972 VW Camper Van or his beloved 1965 Mustang fastback. And he's been known to live in those, too.
In a cookie-cutter world, Waldmire stands apart. The free-spirited artist, whose work is closely tied to U.S. Route 66, recently won the John Steinbeck award from the National Historic Route 66 Federation for making a significant impact in preservation on the historic highway.
As travelers make their way up and down the storied highway from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., they often find Waldmire's artwork as much a part of their experience as the people and places they encounter.
"We heard about Bob in 1988 when my ex-wife and I were traveling down Route 66 and all we heard along the way was 'Bob Waldmire, Bob Waldmire, Bob Waldmire,'" said Jeff Meyer of Rolling Meadows, a founding member of the Route 66 Association of Illinois. "He is very unique. He's an old hippie who never stopped being a hippie."
Another longtime member of the Route 66 Association of Illinois is Lou Vandiver of Champaign, who said, "There simply isn't another artist whose work is so closely tied to Route 66.
"I think it says a lot about his talent that he's been able to make a living all these years selling his artwork," she added.
Waldmire's love of Route 66 and what it represents goes back in the family. His late father, Ed Waldmire Jr., popularized the batter-dipped and deep-fried hot dog, better known as the corn dog. Ed and Virginia Waldmire's Cozy Dog Drive In, founded in 1949, is a Route 66 icon.
"My formative years were always around Route 66," said Bob Waldmire, 59. "I've been back and forth on that highway a lot, at least once a year since 1963."
After graduating from Rochester High School, he attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale for a short time before dropping out and doing a variety of odd jobs. His last real job was in 1969, at a Howard Johnson's Motel on Route 66.
Always a doodler with natural artistic ability, he took the road in 1970 at age 25 to become a traveling artist.
In his first decade as a traveling artist, he went to college towns around the country drawing merchant-sponsored calendar posters aimed at students. His next phase involved fact-filled bird's-eye-view maps of states. In 1987, he started focusing on Route 66. Gift shops and businesses now sell his work, ranging from post cards to maps to brochures.
His work has a retro, 1960s quality, and is often done in ink. His studio is frequently a Denny's restaurant or Flying J truck stop.
"My career as an artist came about as a way to avoid getting a job, pure and simple," Waldmire said. "It has been a formula that has continued to work for 34 years."
Waldmire's life as an artist has been aided by extraordinary thriftiness and self-sufficiency. He showers using a 5-gallon bucket filled with rainwater and warmed by the sun. The main staples of his strict vegan diet are baked potatoes or a pot of beans heated on a solar oven. His favored clothing: a T-shirt and cut-off blue jeans.
"It requires sacrifices that many people are unwilling or unable to make," Waldmire said about his life. "Never having a wife or a family or a mortgage, I was able to make those sacrifices. I had to live in my vehicle as a traveling artist, and I took to the lifestyle like a duck to water."
~Associated Press, Herald News Online
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