Hey Cowboy...

Hey Cowboy...Need A Ride?

It is done! You'll have to click on this image and zoom in. I'm submitting this tomorrow for the latest Community Arts Initiative at the Thames Art Gallery, called Call and Response.

I chose a black and white image of a cowboy as the 'call'. In the image, he is looking off to the right, with a saddle hoisted onto his shoulder. It is a simple image. I didn't choose the image I liked (that one was a photograph of dolls with human heads)- I chose the image that gave me the strongest feeling. I don't like cowboys. I don't like the way the cowboy was drawn. It is too flat and too bland.

This is my 'response': I gave the black and white cowboy a three-dimensional horse. A colourful horse. And lots of other things. Bullets, a cracked robin's egg, a gun, a bird skull, and a syringe. While I was doing this piece, I remembered that 'horse' is also a slang term for heroin. By saying, "Hey Cowboy... Need a Ride?", I am actually saying two things. The man needs a horse because he's a cowboy. And if that man is an addict, he needs a hit. The horse represents the wild ride that heroin and addiction brings.

"Hey Cowboy...Need a Ride?" is also a pick-up line of sorts, perhaps one that a lucky guy might hear from a cowboy boot-wearin' tart in a country and western bar.

She's a cute horse, isn't she? Check out the 'baby' in her stomach. And her nice boots!