haps the 1974 customized limo.
Perhaps you’ve come across his stone
sculptures, or jewelry made out of
stone. Or you’ve seen one of his inven-
tions like “The World’s Largest
Margarita Machine,” a contraption
made out of a diesel engine and a large
barrel used for mixing adobe, paper,
concrete and water into a customized
building material. Possibly you’ve
bought a piece of rustic furniture he
fashioned out of driftwood brought in
by flash floods in Terlingua
Creek or a fire pit made of
old scrap metal. Maybe
you’ve eaten the cat claw
honey he made or if you’re
really lucky, shared in the
bounty of his garden.
If the apocalypse comes,
he is one of the people to
have in your camp.
Mechanic, welder, inventor,
airbrush artist, gardener,
maker of prickly pear wine in
the old mine shafts of
Terlingua... it seems there’s
nothing he hasn’t tried.
Southern
in
Born
California, on a ranch south
of Palm Springs, Sufficool
grew up with two sisters and
a brother. “Because I was
homeschooled, I didn’t have
an education. And since no
one will hire you without an
education, I had to make my
own way.” And make his
own way he did. Sufficool
taught himself whatever he
wanted to do by being com-
fortable swinging from the
seat of his pants and experi-
menting with whatever
piqued his curiosity. “The best way to
learn something,” he said “is to go find
someone who’s doing it, and learn from
them. The library is another great
resource.” His myriad of interests,
mechanical aptitude and ability to live
in the creative flow can be seen in his
many works and extremely varied
mediums. He praises the library at Sul
Ross State University and makes good
use of it, saying it’s an underutilized
treasure.
Sufficool came out to the far west of
Texas about 40 years ago. Southern
California was interesting in the sixties,
he said, but in the seventies, hard drugs
and more money started moving in,
changing the flavor of the place to
something he didn’t like. Sufficool’s
maternal side of the family was from
them with his own flair. One of his cus-
tom cars, which turns at all four wheels,
is called La Cucaracha; painted on it is
the story of the Mexican Revolution.
He also collects old automobile and
truck hoods like some collect trinkets
for their recycled art. For this year’s
ArtWalk, Sufficool “passed out” some
of these hoods to local artists and others
game for using the flavor of a Terlingua
junkyard in their art, telling them to
paint ‘what inspires the artist in West
Texas.” The show will be
called “In the Hood.” He’ll
have one or two “black-
board” hoods for kids so
they can experiment with an
auto hood as a canvas.
Most all the hoods hail
from Terlingua, some of
them from the nineteen-
teens, Sufficool said. During
the mining boom in South
County, the miners, flush
with new riches, bought cars
and cases of whiskey. More
often than not, that combi-
nation resulted with the cars
in pieces across the desert.
It’s these hoods Sufficool
collects, drawn to the odd
canvases by his unique
mechanical creative spirit.
Art cars have taken
Sufficool on many adven-
tures. A few decades ago, he
cobbled together a car out
of whimsy and junk and
named it Poco Loco. In
1990, someone badgered
him into entering it in an
Ugly Car Contest by a 4-
Photo courtesy of Jon Sufficool
wheel drive magazine. Poco
Loco won. The prize was
$1,000. When Sufficool got the win-
goat raisers, National Park travelers,
nings in the mail, he and his significant
and retired military. Sufficool said he
other decided to drive the car to
likes Terlingua because “it’s beautiful
Mexico for a vacation. The vacation
but not culturally isolated. People from
turned into a Journey, and they ended
all over the world come to visit and
up driving around Mexico for about six
since they’re unplugged, they have time
years. They got invited to parades and
to talk, hang out, make friends.”
parties, and offered drink and hospital-
Getting chosen to be the featured
ity. “It was a wonderful way to meet
artist was a great opportunity to show-
people,” he said.
case West Texas art for Sufficool. He
The transmission went out at one
said he’s always wanted to do a show to
point during the journey and Sufficool
prove that West Texas doesn’t need
removed it and brought it back to the
imports from the coasts. (Locals are
States to rebuild it. With only a rusty
familiar with well-meaning people
1933 Texas license plate and no prop-
from other areas that come to school
er paperwork, Poco Loco was unfit for
the hicks of West Texas in culture.)
travel, but the doors at the border
“We got our own culture, we’re proud
opened as if by magic, and the rebuilt
of it, we like it,” Sufficool said.
tranny made it back to Mexico and into
Sufficool is a natural inventor and
Poco Loco. The officer at the check-
rebuilds engines and cars, embellishing
the Texas Hill Country, so in the late
seventies he decided to come out to
Texas and ended up in the Big Bend.
“It took me another ten years to make
it to Austin,” he said. Sufficool loves the
beauty and the prolific nature of this
desert and spent about 25 years at
Terlingua Ranch, back when Lajitas
was just a trading post, and the roof at
the Starlight Theatre was made of real
starlight. There were under 20 people
in Terlingua in the summers, mostly
Cenizo
point gave Sufficool a sticker for his
cars that read (in Spanish) “It’s a crime
to steal this car in Mexico.” The “spe-
cial sticker” ended up getting the Poco
Loco travellers through military road-
blocks and such with no wait and no
problems. It turns out the sticker was
and
members
Embassy
for
Ambassadors. “It was a magical jour-
ney,” Sufficool said. “I had the time of
my life.”
Most of the art cars for ArtWalk will
come from a group in Houston. It will
be juried, which means not any old car
with some weird stuff glued on can call
itself an “art car.” Blackman will cover
the cost for them by taking sponsors.
For $400 each – the cost of gas and two
nights in a motel. Any local person or
business can underwrite an art car for
the festivities. As these cars are from
Houston, this is a more poignant con-
tribution to Houston residents after
Hurricane Harvey decimated their
city.
This year, aside from showcasing
the art of the automobile and its various
parts, the music portion of ArtWalk will
also be different. Instead of spending
big money on stages and headliner
bands from out-of-town, it will be spent
hiring local musicians and bands.
Blackman said music will be showcased
around town. She tested the water last
year with acoustic music in some spots
and local response and support was
good. Blackman will also cross-pro-
mote music from the Granada
Theater, the Crystal Bar and Railroad
Blues.
This year’s ArtWalk promises to be
a bit richer in terms of West Texas cul-
ture on many fronts: local art, local
music and local food trucks as well.
“Jon is a treasure – he’s not a typical
wall-artist,” Blackman said. “He’s
reshaped the art scene in the years he’s
lived here. He truly is the jewel of the
Big Bend.”
“I like the art cars because you can
take the art where the people are,”
Sufficool said. His works will be on dis-
play at TransPecos Bank and hopefully
will include some of his current proj-
ects: bronze and copper pieces, iron
gates, photography, and Big Bend
miniatures, which are little landscapes.
His influence of community and cre-
ativity will, of course, be all over “the
Hood.”
For more information on Artwalk or
to sponsor an art car, email
info@artwalkalpine.com or call
432.837.3067.
Fourth Quarter 2017
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