Roadside Art | Route 66 Sign Under a Big Sky | Betsy Crum
Crum Art
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Route 66 Sign Under a Big Sky — Roadside Art by Betsy Crum
Betsy found the shield on a pole over a strip-center marquee, red and blue and a little sun-faded, and shot it against a sky that goes from cream at the bottom to a deep teal up top with thin clouds combed across it. Then she let the sky have most of the picture. That is the rule in her roadside work: the sign is a sentence, the sky is the paragraph. The small plate under the shield reads Mary Lou Help Me, and it stays in because you cannot make that up.
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Fine Art Prints Made in Fort Worth, Texas
Since 1996, Crum Art has created original art, paintings, and fine art prints in Fort Worth, showing and selling work at hundreds of art shows across Texas.
Crum Art brings a distinct Texas and Western point of view to specific, meaningful images: pop art color, cowboys, cowgirls, animals, kittens, vintage signs, bluebonnets, humor, grit, and Lone Star nostalgia.
These are not mass-produced prints or generic wall decor. They are artist-made pieces with a Texas point of view, created for homes that feel collected, lived-in, and full of meaning.
Each print is produced to gallery-quality fine art standards, made to order in our Fort Worth studio, carefully inspected, and hand-signed by the artist. Every piece passes through our hands before it becomes part of your home.
Print Details
- Museum-grade giclee: archival pigment inks on 100% cotton rag paper
- Unframed and sized to fit standard frames
- Studio-made, artist-signed prints only available directly from Crum Art
Made in Texas.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a giclee art print?
A giclee (zhee-CLAY) is the museum standard for fine-art printing — archival pigment inks laid down on fine-art paper, built to hold color for generations. Every Crum Art print is made to the highest standard of giclee: 100% cotton rag paper and archival pigment inks, printed to order and hand-signed by the artist before it leaves our Fort Worth studio. It’s the same process museums and galleries use to reproduce original artwork.
What is the difference between a giclee print and a regular art print?
Ordinary posters use standard inks on standard paper and fade within a few years. A giclee uses archival pigment inks on cotton rag paper, built to resist fading for generations. If you’re hanging it somewhere you’ll see it every day, the difference shows — first in the color depth, later in how long it keeps it.
Will this look like an original painting or a print?
Crum Art takes the scanning and photographing of original paintings seriously — we work to capture the texture of the canvas or paper the original was created on, so that texture shows through in the print. Combined with the cotton rag paper’s own subtle surface and the hand-signing, many customers say they cannot tell if it’s an original or a print. That’s intentional. These are not flat digital reproductions — they are fine art prints that carry the soul of the original.
What sizes does this print come in?
Our fine art prints are available in standard rectangle and square sizes. Rectangles: 8x10 unframed matted to 11x14, 11x14 unframed, 16x20, 18x24, and 24x36. Squares: 8x8 unframed matted to 12x12, 12x12 unframed, 16x16, 20x20, and 24x24. Each size ships ready to frame, making it easy to find the right fit for your wall.
How do I frame a print?
Every size in our lineup matches a standard frame, so your print drops straight into an off-the-shelf frame from any craft store — no custom framing required. For a gallery look, add a mat and go one frame size up. Prints ship flat or carefully rolled; a rolled print flattens easily under a few books overnight.
How should I preserve an art print?
Ours do most of the work for you — archival pigment inks on cotton rag are made to last generations. To help them along: frame under glass or acrylic, keep out of direct sunlight and away from heavy humidity, and handle by the edges before framing. That’s it.
How do I make a gallery wall with art prints?
Start with an anchor piece and build outward — many Crum Art prints are part of series designed to group together as a statement gallery wall, or hang individually as standalone pieces. Since every image is sized to fit standard frames, mixing sizes is easy: lay the arrangement out on the floor first, keep about two to three inches between frames, and center the whole grouping at eye level.
What rooms do these prints work in?
Everywhere a home wants personality — living rooms, entryways, kitchens, offices, and nurseries. They’re strong anchor pieces for western, ranch-style, and Lone Star-inspired interiors, and just as at home in collected, colorful rooms of any style. A good rule for hanging: center your art 57 to 60 inches from the floor — museum height — and go a touch higher above furniture.
Made with love. Signed by hand. Shipped with care. Hung with joy.
Product FAQ
What is the sign?
A Route 66 shield on a tall pole over a shopping-center marquee, the kind that went up along the Mother Road in the fifties and never came down. The little plate at the bottom reads MARY LOU HELP ME, which nobody has explained.
Where on Route 66 is it?
Somewhere between Chicago and Santa Monica. The road ran through Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle, which is where Betsy spent the most time looking up.
Where does the Route 66 print hang?
An office, a garage wall, an entryway, a boy's room, or a dorm. It is a road-trip picture and it likes a room people leave from.
Are there two versions?
Two crops of the same sign: one from farther back with more sky, one closer. Both are in the listing images.