VANISHING LINKS SERIES #3
BLACK RHINOCEROS
Limited Edition of #15
The center area features an original pen and ink drawing of a head study of a Black Rhino. The face images are Luba masks from Kinshasa, Africa. Masks represent the faces of higher beings: of spirits, gods, and ancestors. A Bogolan mudcloth textile pattern is located between the masks. The border herd of rhino's and men with spears at the top and bottom represent the rhinos struggle for survival due to illegal poaching.
Once the most numerous of all rhino species, the black rhino has been the target of the greatest hunting pressure of all. In 1970, the world population of black rhinos was 65,000. By 1980, it dropped to 15,000 and today it is thought that fewer than 3,000 black rhinos remain. Rhinos are victims of the animal parts trade and have been illegally hunted nearly to extinction. Poachers have decimated Black Rhino populations throughout Africa and today only isolated fragments remain
19" X 19" X 2"
