For Immediate Release · July 2026
Ken Kelleher (aka Anchorball) Completes Crybaby, a New Monumental Roadside Sculpture for Tulsa’s Route 66
A new contemporary landmark, ready for installation, joins the celebrated tradition of Route 66 roadside attractions.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
TULSA, OKLAHOMA — JULY 2026 — Internationally recognized sculptor Ken Kelleher, also known as Anchorball, has completed Crybaby, a new monumental roadside sculpture created for Tulsa’s historic Route 66 corridor. The finished work is ready for installation, with Kelleher and the City of Tulsa currently finalizing the installation details and permanent location.
Created in response to the history, visual language and enduring mythology of Route 66, Crybaby was designed to function as both a contemporary public artwork and a memorable roadside destination. The sculpture takes its name from Tulsa’s celebrated Cry Baby Hill, a prominent local landmark associated with the city’s cycling culture and its location near Cyrus Avery Plaza and the Arkansas River.
Kelleher approached the project by considering the extraordinary tradition of oversized figures, eccentric structures and instantly recognizable attractions that have shaped the identity of Route 66. In the Tulsa region, that history includes the Golden Driller, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, the Red Fork Oil Depot, the Center of the Universe and Buck Atom — landmarks that transform local stories into larger-than-life cultural symbols. The City of Tulsa identified these attractions as part of the regional constellation the new artwork was intended to join.
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When I designed Crybaby, I thought about what makes the great Route 66 landmarks unforgettable — the Golden Driller rising out of Tulsa’s oil history, the Blue Whale appearing unexpectedly beside the road, and all the strange, joyful sculptures that give the highway its personality. I wanted to create something contemporary that could belong to that tradition: bold, humorous, instantly recognizable and completely connected to Tulsa.— Ken Kelleher (aka Anchorball)
Rather than reproducing the visual language of an earlier era, Crybaby reinterprets the spirit of the classic American roadside attraction through Kelleher’s own sculptural vocabulary. The work combines monumentality with humour and direct visual impact, creating a piece intended to be understood immediately from a passing vehicle while rewarding closer encounters on foot.
The sculpture was conceived as a new emblem for its surroundings — a work capable of welcoming Route 66 travellers, connecting with the energy and mythology of Cry Baby Hill, and becoming part of the images and memories visitors carry away from Tulsa. This goal reflects the City’s original vision for an engaging, lasting and humorous artwork that would be highly visible from surrounding roads and worthy of becoming a destination in its own right.
The completed sculpture is now prepared for installation. Kelleher and City representatives are working through the remaining site and installation requirements, including the final placement of the work within Tulsa’s Route 66 landscape.
Once installed, Crybaby will join a lineage of roadside landmarks that have made Route 66 more than a highway. These works give physical form to the stories, industries, personalities and eccentricities of the communities through which the road passes — creating landmarks that are local in origin but capable of becoming recognized far beyond their immediate surroundings.
For Kelleher, the project represents an opportunity to contribute a new symbol to that evolving history: a contemporary sculpture made for Tulsa, rooted in the character of Route 66 and designed to become part of the road’s next century.