Art Deco-Architecture-Filling Station TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 10-Aug-25 this trackable had survived for 9.6 years and has been moved by only 9 cachers, for an average drop every 388 days, or one drop every 1.1 years. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

I have already released series of art-themed travel bugs based on works I have seen in person.  I will continue the series mostly including works I simply admire.  There will also be famous works or works by famous artists that I otherwise do not particularly care for, but they are….well,..famous.  My disdain extends to most Modern Art and a good amount from the Pop Art movement.  However, I do have a special fondness for Art Deco.  The building on the default photo is in Shamrock, Texas.  It was a Conoco filling station on old Route 66 before the Interstate bypassed town.  The building was fully restored, is at the intersection of US 83 and Main Street and is now the visitor information center.

Art Deco or just Deco, is an influential visual arts design style that first appeared in France just before World War I and began flourishing internationally in the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s before its popularity waned after World War II.  It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925.  It is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials.  The style is often characterized by rich colors, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation.

Deco emerged from the interwar period when rapid industrialization was transforming the culture of the western world.  One of its major attributes is an embrace of technology.  This distinguishes Deco from the organic motifs favored by its predecessor Art Nouveau.  It was a style that usually (but not always) ran more to symmetry rather than asymmetry, and to the rectilinear (but not always) rather than the curvilinear.  During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance and faith in social and technological progress.

As the travel bugs is this series will show, the Art Deco style manifested itself in all expressions of the culture of the period; furniture, home décor, luxury items, fashion, architecture, industrial design and the arts (jewelry, posters, pottery, sculpture, painting).