Monday, May 5, 2008

Scooter People

I do retail caricatures at the newly titled "Nickelodeon Universe" theme park in the Mall of America, and have been there since it was Knott's Camp Snoopy, before it went through it's clever transitional stage known as "The Park at MOA".

I see thousands of bizarre and memorable characters out there, and try to discreetly draw anyone I can to kill my downtime. A recurring character that heavily populates the mall are the scooter people. Sometimes they don't park in one spot long enough for me to make enough fair observations, and other times I am interrupted by a customer who wants their caricature done. But more often than not, they are parked with ample time for me to jot something down.

I think the scooter is in itself a character/symbol of the mall (AND America!); completely indifferent to care or common courtesy. Many scooters are large and repelling, thoughtlessly and selfishly obstructing mall traffic from all directions. They are capable of carting around entire walk-in (or roll-in) closets, 10 shopping bags, babies, grandchildren, and a gallon of Coke. Never any need to rent a locker. Walking is too much of a chore, anyway!

I already have my Elvis of the Day to worry about, but with a full-time summer season just around the corner, I intend to start a large body of these drawings. Click on any to enlarge!










Not a scooter, but still an interesting shape that was worth drawing.



This one had a seatbelt and was sitting on a pillow.

6 comments:

HARRINGTOONs Patrick Harrington said...

BWwwaahaha!
Dozer funny! Is this artstix?

ZackWallenfang.com said...

Thanks. Some are art stix, some colored pencil, a little crayola marker here and there, and whatever the hell else I have laying around!

lordmarcus said...

zack, these are fantastic! gets me really eager to do some people watching this summer!

on a more random note, last weekend i signed a lease for the house next door to where i lived last summer, and srijon is just a couple blocks north of me, so some crazy antics might have to ensue.

Jesse said...

Ah yes, the infamous scooter people. A fine subject.

Jeremy Townsend (JERT) said...

God bless you Zach Wallenfang

Antonio said...

really? there are people at malls with scooters? omg