Rag Radio: Iconic Texas Artist Bob ‘Daddy-O’ Wade & Cultural Historian Jason Mellard

Monumental sculptor 'Daddy-O' Wade is famous as an ambassador of Texas culture and was a major force in the Cosmic Cowboy movement.

0
747
Bob "Daddy-O" Wade on Iguanamobile.

Thorne Dreyer‘s guests on Rag Radio are iconic Texas artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade and cultural historian Jason Mellard.

Bob Wade, a native of Austin, is best known for his monumental Texas and Southwestern-themed sculptures like the 40-foot iguana on the roof of the Lone Star Café in New York and the Guinness World Record-setting Giant Boots in San Antonio, and for his experimental work hand-tinting black-and-white vintage photographs transferred to large photo-emulsion canvases. Wade is the recipient of three NEA grants and has been included in biennials in Paris, New Orleans, and the Whitney Museum of Art in New York. He is in major collections including Chase Manhattan Bank, AT&T, the Menil Collection, Houston, and the Austin Museum Of Art. A retrospective of his work was exhibited at the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture in the fall of 2009.

bob-wade-jason-mellard-rag-radio-11-18
Bob Wade, left, and Jason Mellard. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Bob “Daddy-O” Wade is also known as an ambassador of Texas culture who has spread the word about Texas art nationally and internationally and as a major figure in developing the 1970s Texas Cosmic Cowboy counterculture.

Jason Mellard, who teaches at Texas State University, is a cultural historian of the modern South and Southwest. He received his Ph.D. in American Studies at UT-Austin and his book, “Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Cultures,” explores the intersections of political change and popular culture in Texas. Mellard is currently researching the racial politics of musical performance venues in the mid-20th century Texas-Mexico borderlands. Jason Mellard has collaborated extensively with artist Bob Wade



ragradio250x250Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer, cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas, in association with The Rag Blog and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The host and producer of Rag Radio, Thorne Dreyer, is a prominent Austin-based activist and writer who was a pioneer of the ’60s underground press movement. The show’s engineer and co-producer is Tracey Schulz and the staff photographer is Roger Baker. The syndicated show is broadcast (and streamed) live Fridays, 2-3 p.m. (Central) on KOOP in Austin, is streamed live at Radio Free America, and is later rebroadcast and streamed on WFTE-FM in Mt. Cobb and Scranton, PA., on Houston Pacifica’s KPFT HD-3 90.1-FM, and by KKRN, 88.5-FM in Round Mountain, CA — and is a featured podcast at VT. All Rag Radio podcasts can be found at the Internet Archive. Contact: ragradio@koop.org.

[powerpress_playlist]

ATTENTION READERS

We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed
In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.

About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT.