Udderly Moovelous – The Cows Come Home to Burlington, VT

‘Lacey The Cow’ is one of the reasons I’ve been lax in blogging lately. Thanks to those who’ve emailed me asking where I’ve been. This life-size fiberglass bovine, came into my life a couple of weeks ago as a blank canvas needing paint. She is part of the herd from The Cows Come Home to Burlington, Vermont community art project. 35 cows were distributed to area artists to decorate. The finished cows will be displayed from May through September along Church St. and other Burlington locations. Individual cows will be auctioned off at the end of the summer to help raise money for The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger.

Lacey came to me courtesy of Spruce Mortgage, one of the many cow sponsors. Concepts for designs came to me easily. With the encouragement of my ‘Poppy Gall Design’ facebook “fans”, and Tracy Dunphy who I enlisted to help me paint her, I went with my most complicated and favorite idea – a lace covered cow.

As a textile designer, I wanted to “upholster” her in an unexpected fabric design. I’ve had lace on my mind lately as those of you who’ve been reading my blog know. I’ve blogged about Cal Lane’s metal lace and Demakersvan’s lace fences. I’ve also been seeing a lot of lace motifs and textiles in the market while trend shopping this spring.

It occurred to me that lace on a cow is as incongruous as “a fish on a bicycle”. Lace is dainty or sexy – and face it, a cow just isn’t.

Wanting to play off the black and white Holsteins that dot the Vermont landscape, I gave her a clean graphic look by substituting the Holsteins black blotches with lace motifs. This turned out to be a good idea, as painting the detailed lace was very time consuming; if she were covered entirely with lace – my first concept idea – I’d be cross-eyed and still seeing black and white! I finished her beautifcation program with a shiny red hooficure!

I’m looking forward to seeing all the girls together in Burlington this week. Seeing them all together will be worth a trip from anywhere! To see photos of some of the other moovelous hand painted cows click here.

Lacey The Cow

P.S. I have a new facebook page. “Like” it to see what sorts of projects I’m working on and to be an interactive part of my design studio. If you spot Lacey The Cow in Burlington, take a photo of the two (or more) of you and post it on my facebook page!

x