Rhinestone Cowboy 

This piece was inspired by a black and white photo taken by Michael Kameni in 1977 Cameroun. I really loved this shot and wanted to recapture it, breathing life into it through the colours of my pallet putting him behind the lens of a more warped and vibrant alternate reality that I often set as the backdrops for my pieces. The cowboy attire reminded me of the Madvillian song Rhinestone Cowboy, off of one of my favourite Mf Doom albums ‘Madviliiany’ and the only studio album recorded in collaboration with Madlib as part of their duo Madvillian. I’ve always really loved the cartoon/comic book aspect to the production layered with the grittiness of Doom’s comic style villain narration and wanted to try to bring that to life through the colours I used and setting, referencing stylistic aspects of different types of cartoons like the Looney tunes.

When looking more into the name and where it originated from I found out that Rhinestone Cowboy is actually a term used for really eccentric and flamboyantly dressed Cowboys. It started with the cowboy Loy Bowlin in Mississippi who became famous for bejewelling everything from his clothing, Cadillac, home and even his dentures with thousands of rhinestones. After his death his rhinestone bejewelled home was acquired by the Kohller Foundation and made into a permanent display, ‘The Beautiful Holy Jewel Home of The Original Rhinestone Cowboy’ in Wisconsin. And just like his home the term lived on and was passed down to any of his future eccentric successors that, like him wanted to walk down a more bejewelled and colourful country ridden path.