In April, I was invited to be a part of a small crew of local chalk artists to commemorate the opening of the 38th & Blake light rail station in a section of north Denver titled the RiNo district. RiNo stands for River North, and it refers to the northern end of the South Platte river as it heads out toward the eastern plains. The RiNo district has boomed over the past year and has become a fantastic artist community.
I was told to show up with nothing more than my sunglasses and bottled water. I had no idea what I would create. When I arrived, a plywood template of a rhinoceros was given to me, with some community chalks, and I was told to use it to create my own take on the theme. It didn’t take long before the idea of a sunken rhino impression in the pavement came to my mind, and I started working on it immediately.
Since the RiNo logo features a bird on the back of a rhinoceros, I decided to include a 3D bird, looking in. Since I didn’t want the whole thing to feel macabre, I also added the growing black eyed susan in the dirt below, to add more color and to cheer things up.
I spent a total of four hours. The piece isn’t very big, but the biggest challenge is that being April, the wind was ferocious. Did my best to keep my colors from getting muddled in all of the gales.
