Meet Elijah Rutland, a 19-year-old student at Florida A&M University and founder of Fix My Sole.
Rutland told BuzzFeed News he saw this meme of Rolf from Ed, Edd n Eddy circulating.
And Rutland decided to draw his own take.
People really out here thinking that I make free art....
Rutland said he has been drawing his whole life and that his art is an extension of him. “I use it to say the things I wouldn’t want to say out loud or put it into a tweet so I create a visual representation of my thoughts,” he said.
He said he tends to focus on topics like black history, black empowerment, and political and social issues, but he has a background in cartoons so he occasionally he tries to make a piece of art that is current or about a personal struggle.
Rutland said he assumed his drawing would receive the same attention as his other artwork, but all of a sudden there were edits of it everywhere.
When both y’all miss the other but nobody wanna call first
He said: “The next thing I knew, people were sharing it and editing it with new skin tones, hairstyles, and captions, so all of this is new to me because I’ve never had anything that has gone viral before.”
Travis Scott when Kylie opens up the window and lets out the antidote
There have been dozens of edits.
CAN YALL STOP???? 😂😂😂😂💀💀
@iAm_KJayy @SaintLaurentAsh Am I the only person who has a gallery full of Rolf memes locked, loaded, and ready for Twitter?...I am?...okay https://t.co/DanLV99oJY
Rutland said at first he was happy that his art went viral, but he then noticed that people were sharing his work and removing his signature.
How Rolf go from here to here? HOW?!?!
He said: “They’d post it from their page and get way more attention than I did when I was the one who created it, so that kinda got under my skin for the first few days, and since then I’ve been getting tagged and DMs from people all over who are showing me when my work was reposted, so that has been great.”
He said his friends, family, and supports started to diligently defend and tag him when they saw his edit posted without credit.
“It’s been a community effort and I’m truly grateful to have such great people around me, and even with all the negative I’m still glad that so many people have had the chance to see my work because it has opened many doors for my art and it’s been interesting to see how the internet works.
“All things considered, I’ll say that so far, everything turned out pretty good.”
Me seeing the tl discuss mehr for the 100th time
I’ve never seen someone spell out the sound of sucking your teeth tho💀😂 https://t.co/Jc6gqHouMP
And people think that Rolf is about to come for Spongebob’s meme throne.
Is Rolf really the new Spongebob? Im howling https://t.co/LICpDPVpd2
Even though y’all doing Rolf dirty with those memes I’m glad to see something other than spongebob.
How Rolf lookin at all the memes of him “Look how they do the son of a shepherd”