Bicycle Lust

A tribute to My introduction to lust, the "Sting Ray"
When I was eleven years old Schwinn introduced the "sting Ray" the coolest set of
wheels to ever hit the planet. I had just won a 26" full dress Murray in a drawing
contest on the "Captain Ken Show" ( one of those 50's early 60's local after school T V programs) it had headlights ,it might have even had mud
flaps. It was red and white, with a whole lotta chrome( it was pretty) but then
the "Sting Ray came out, and it was like a Buick and a Corvette, and I thought I
was more of a Corvette kinda guy. I mean they were like sex on wheels, and I didn't even know
what sex was, yet I lusted for a set of these sporty wheels. Alas, the original sting ray cost $49.95 something like $500 today..a family of 5
boys,Me with a brand new "pretty" bike, My chances of actually getting My hands on one of these beauties... You got it "slim and none". but I could
dream. The other half of My tribute, is to an artist whose artwork would over the years come to Me in flashes, in snippets of dreams, it reached out to Me from My early, early Years, the ones You almost can't remember. It was at best a sort of hazy recollection of My favorite picture book.
This nagged at Me for years, I finally
did some research and discovered the book was "Tenggren's Cowboys and Indians" I
hopped on E-Bay and a week later I was curled up on the sofa with an orange Nehi
and a sack of Old Dutch potato chips getting reacquainted with Little Bear, Grubstake, Jon,Sue,
Grandpa, and all the folks at the Lazy River Ranch.
Gustaf Tenggren Born in 1896 in Sweden lived to be 74 years old.
He did Illustrations for popular Swedish Folk Stories in the 20's Later
He worked with Disney on background art for Pinocchio, and then as art director
for Snow White. In the 40's and 50's He did Illustrations for Children's books working with Golden Books.
His art work reached out to Me over a 50 year divide , that's kinda cool.
This piece "sweet Dream" and another that is in My FAA gallery "Dream ride" were done for a show at Altered Esthetics titled "bike art III"
One more thing. When I appeared on the Captain Ken show to receive My prize for "first place boys" there was also an eleven year old girl present to receive Her award for the girl's competition. There I was. They rolled that shiny new bike out for Me, I must have had a grin from ear to ear, and then they awarded Her...a doll. To this day I still remember the look on Her face. It was My first realization that life isn't always fair to chicks, and being a guy had it's advantages