Big Daddy Roth
(Portrait of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth)
Ceramic, hand-blown glass, and wire
48″ x 27″ x 20″
Permanent collection: Crocker Art Museum

Details

Following the ceramic personas of Dr. Gladstone are two portrait variations of Ed Roth: Big Daddy Roth, created in 2010, and Big Daddy II, sculpted in 2016. Sourcing memories from his childhood, Tony cherished a keychain of Rat Fink he had received in the mid-1960s when he was a kid. Rat Fink is a two-and three-dimensional cartoonish character invented by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. (Tony still has the keychain.) Rat Fink was drawn and sculpted to look like a mean, green fat rat with sharp, jagged teeth. Tony recalls that Rat Fink was an “anti-Mickey Mouse figure who was a mascot for counter-culture, drag racers, hot-rodders, and surfers.” Although Big Daddy Roth became a cult hero for his custom hot rod cars fabricated from fiberglass, many with precision pinstriping designs that created an art form, his drawings, and models of hot-rodding gross monsters, especially Rat Fink, brought him the most fame. In tribute, Tony sculpted the first portrait version of Ed Roth as the custom car Artíste (an attribution printed on the back of Big Daddy’s T-shirt), working on the now legendary Beatnik Bandit car balanced on his lap. Ed Roth is portrayed mid-action with casting plaster in one hand to build the body of the hotrod and, in the other, a paintbrush to execute the pinstripe design. Seated in the car, under a hand-blown glass wind bubble, is a figure representing the “Dragon Lady,” one of the first female drag racers. (Unbeknownst to Tony, the real Dragon Lady was the sister of a good friend – serendipitous!) The crazed Rat Fink is looming over Big Daddy’s head and popping out of his black hat, controlling the artist with a gear shifter. This depiction is an actualization of Big Daddy’s remarks. When interviewed, he confessed that after many years he could not shake Rat Fink; he continuously felt the control the devious mouse exerted over him. In Big Daddy II, Ed Roth is still plagued with the mischievous mouse Rat Fink who is again housed in Big Daddy’s black hat. However, in this version, Big Daddy controls the stick shift and is racing his hotrod at high speed: flames burst from the engine, and objects fly off the car into orbit. Tony intended to create the sensation of emotional and physical movement as Big Daddy winks and grimaces, Rat Fink watches with anticipation, and the speedster sputters to life when thrown into high gear.