Roadside Kitsch Is Fun, but Is It Art? Virginia Museum Sure Hopes So

Ailing Facility Eyes Sculptor of Oddities; Bigfoot and the Exploding Outhouse

By ROB JOHNSON

ROANOKE, Va.—Mark Cline's fiberglass sculptures of giant ticks and man-eating dinosaurs are the sort of fare that a $66 million art museum would normally keep at arm's length.
But curators at the Taubman Museum of Art have approached Mr. Cline about showcasing some of his unconventional works.

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Sherry Cline

Mark Cline poses between two fiberglass sculptures he created.

An artist of roadside renown, the 50-year-old Mr. Cline is the creator of towering figures that have beckoned for decades from the rural Virginia tourist attractions he co-owns: "Prof. Cline's Haunted Monster Museum," "Dinosaur Kingdom" and "Hunt Bigfoot with a Redneck." What's more, his carefully crafted beasts are fixtures at miniature golf courses far and wide. "I'm in Myrtle Beach, Orlando and Branson," he says with pride....