Frost-t-Treat, Hot Springs, Arkansas

frost-t-treat-mary-anne-erickson

Frost-t-Treat, Hot Springs, Arkansas

I planned a road trip in 2012 to visit Little Rock, Hot Springs, and travel up through the Ozarks to Eureka Springs, Arkansas looking for great roadside attractions. As fate would have it, several friends in Woodstock told me about former Hudson Valley residents who now lived in two of those places. And both were artists! One of them, David Malcolm Rose, is an artist who specializes in recreating roadside treasures similar to mine as sculptures! (https://www.facebook.com/TheLostHighway/) Whoo hoo! How excited I was to meet this man.

I contacted him to see if he could give me some Hot Springs highlights, as it has a grand history as a former tourist haven with natural hot springs. He not only pointed me in the right direction, he insisted on driving me around to see some of his favorite signs and give me a proper oral history of this once-grand city.

When we got to the Frost-t-Treat ice cream stand, my heart once again stood still (a sure sign that I’ve found roadside gold!) I snapped a few photos and we were on to the next place. But you can be sure that soon after I got home, this was one of the first paintings I chose to make from this wonderful Arkansas road trip.

Sadly, not long after my visit in 2011, they went out of business, and it appeared they were just another great vintage business that had vanished. But miracle of miracles, in 2012 new owners reopened the place and they now give their profits to a local women’s recovery center. This is the kind of feel good story I love! People keeping the love alive!

Oil on canvas, 30×40″

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