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Rhinos And The Riders Who Ride Them

AUGUST 7, 2006
Monday Is "Dudes On Rhinos" Day.
If you haven't done so, I implore you to stop by Mr Jos A Smith's Drawger page and have a look at his latest post. His giant drawing of a fantastic knight astride a rhinocerous was so impressive that upon viewing it my bowels went all watery and I fell to my knees sobbing. Well, OK- I guess I'd call it weeping, but whaetever- what I'm trying to say is this: I love drawings of thuggish brutes riding rhinos and I'm thrilled to see that I'm in good company.

What inspires the creation of such an image? Is the brutish armored beast a metaphor for the restlessness and unslakable fury that lives in the heart of a true warrior? Is  the prehistoric otherworldliness of the rhinocerous meant to connote a longing to know the unknowable?

In the case of the above image, one I've somewhat transparently entitled "Ice Cream", the moment of inspiration came to me in a flash as it so often does. I was sitting at my post enjoying a repast of Baked Doritos and Fresca when I thought to myself- I should draw a picture of a guy riding a rhino.

The rusulting image pleased me and I thought to use it as a self-promotional postcard. As I often do, I employed my focus--group to give me their impressions of the images marketability. The consensus was that it was an image with no message- what was it meant to convey, they wondered aloud. I countered that monsterous dudes riding bucking rhinocerouses were their own reward, but that argument didn't wash with this crack team of tastemakers and the image was sent reluctantly to the dread Isle Of Unwanted Artworks.

It appears here and here only for your review. I hope you will see some merit in it and respond more charitibly (if you see fit to respond at all). And before you ask "what's up with that stupid hat" ( a query put forth by several members of the House O' Wax focus group with no evident sense of pop-culture history) it is a nod to the late, great Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and the tattered hillbilly headgear that his charming monsterous progeny are often depicted wearing. So there.
© 2024 Steve Wacksman