Wine corks, imagination turn idle time into artsy rhinoceros

(SacBee) - A 300-pound rhinoceros stands in a Fair Oaks couple's garage.

Sure, the creature is made from plastic foam, plywood and thousands of wine corks, but its sight may prove just as arresting as seeing the real thing.

Two area couples – Jim and Mary Lambert of Carmichael, and Bob and Di Nelson of Fair Oaks – have spent the last three years bringing the large, one-horned mammal to figurative life. And on Sunday, they'll take their massive piece of 3-D art on the road.

The sculpture – dubbed "Rhinocirrhosis," after the liver disease often caused by heavy alcohol consumption – will travel by enclosed trailer nearly 2,200 miles, so it can compete as part of ArtPrize, an international art contest in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Jim Lambert said after scoping out some of their competitors online, they're hopeful they could snag the contest's top $200,000 cash prize.

"The whole event is sort of a culmination of having a good time with friends and family members," he said Tuesday morning as he showed off the sculpture in the Nelsons' Fair Oaks garage. "Sure, we have grandiose thoughts of winning, but they are grandiose thoughts. We are just going to have some fun."

The idea for the sculpture came when Lambert's wife, Mary, asked him to take up a hobby. Instead of choosing a typical pastime like woodworking or watercoloring, Lambert decided he would make a piece of artwork from his 20-year-old wine cork collection taking up space in the garage.