January 23, 2015 at 4:19 p.m.
Madison artist creates prehistoric Hodag
Madison artist creates prehistoric Hodag
It's not often the Hodag makes it as far south as Madison though, especially the prehistoric variety.
Madison artist Tim Browning creates a piece of art every winter and erects it on the frozen waters of Lake Monona. This year, he decided to create a full-sized depiction of a creature he calls the Hodagosaurus, an ancient ancestor of Gene Shepard's monster.
Browning's first contact with the Hodag came when he was just a boy. As Rhinelander natives well know, the Hodag makes for an effective campfire story.
"I was a Boy Scout like many other children were," he said. "Being from Wisconsin, we camped around the Rhinelander area. The elders and the Scoutmasters would always tell us about the big, bad Hodag that was going to come and get us."
Later in life, the story of the mythical monster came up again and he decided to dig a little deeper. The local folklore surrounding the beast fascinated Browning. He never contemplated its actual existence, but that didn't take any of the fun out of it.
"Its ugly," he said. "It's just too ugly to exist in real life. Once I researched it further in the old days without Internet after hearing about it. They eat white bulldogs and there are other indicators. You hear the story and you hear it described and you think it's too ugly to actually exist, but it got me curious and once I looked into it I became enthralled by it."
That fascination led to the creation of the Hodagosaurus. Browning's dinosaur doesn't bear a distinct resemblance to Rhinelander's mascot. It's red instead of green and because he designed it as a fossil, it's really just the bones of the creature, but Browning said the inspiration came directly from the Hodag.
"Basically, it's your average, everyday Hodag," he said. "It's got four spikes on its back. It has two long fangs and some little spikes on its tail."
Creating the Hodagosaurus took an eye for detail and some of Browning's special equipment.
"As far as creating the Hodagosaurus, if you've seen the little wooden puzzles, I used those. I had to find a dinosaur model and I have what I lovingly refer to as an industrial-sized overhead projector," he said. "It blows things up real big. I took the pieces of the puzzle and blow it on pieces of 4x8 paper because that's the size of the plywood. I can make whatever I want."
The Hodagosaurus is far from Browning's first project. He's been supplying Lake Monona with original art for nearly two decades. It all started with a contribution to existing art.
"I've accepted 16 years as far as when I first started doing it," Browning said. "There was a gentleman who used to put out a miniature capital on Lake Monona at about the same place I do it now. I remember thinking that it looked fantastic. I worked downtown and the capital building was right out the door from the job I had, and the capital on the lake didn't quite look the same as the real capital. I got some cardboard, went out onto the lake, and cut them into the shapes of ostriches with their heads stuck in the ice. That looked better to me because there were politicians hanging around the capital. I've been doing it ever since."
For his first few winters, no one knew who was creating the art. Eventually, Browning was identified as the myster artist and the rest is history. With this year's Hodagosaurus on display, Browning's work is finished until next year.
"I don't see any real reason to quit, to be honest with you," he said. "As long as my health holds up, I'll do it. With my installation crew, I might be able to find someone to carry this on as far as decorating lakes. My nephew, who lives in Crystal Lake, Ill., has made some inquiries as far as doing something down there. As far as I'm concerned, if you nice folks in Rhinelander want something up there, I'd be more than happy to have something magically appear on one of your lakes."
Andy Hildebrand may be reached at [email protected].
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