Daddy-O: Iguana Heads and Texas Tales

Maverick Texas artist Bob Wade has produced a giant sculpture of an iguana, to stand atop the old Lone Star Cafe in New York City; motorized frogs dancing the tango in Dallas; and a Mardi Gras mobile decorated with toy guns (the ``Bonnie & Clyde Mobile''). In room-sized installations, velvet paintings of nudes and bullfighters, a football field-sized map of the U.S., a trailer museum stuffed with Texas lore, colorful soft sculptures and experimental photographs and paintings, Wade deflates icons of pop culture and challenges conventional ways of seeing and being. In this irreverent autobiography, a curious mix of bravado and deadpan irony, Wade (writing with Gavin Report reporters Keith and Kent Zimmerman) tells of his El Paso roots, the Berkeley art scene of the mid-1960s, his college teaching career (1966-1977) and his leap into independence. Wade, now a resident of Santa Fe, also recalls his three visits-one at the age of six-with his second cousin, cowboy Roy Rogers. Illustrations. (Nov.)