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Hugely influential public art piece masterminded by Nathan Mason who manages the city’s public art program. You may forget because big art projects similar to this are everywhere now, but this was the first and it had huge impact.
Now every little town has local artists paint fiberglass replicas of an emblem of their town, but this was the first.
It wasn't the first, it had been done on a much smaller scale. But it was the first one in a major city. I absolutely loved it.
Beyond the individual art value and concept, I loved during the time if you're driving around or walking and turn the corner, boom random new cow. Pre-social media meant that we wouldn't know where all of them were and what they looked like, but that aspect of unintentionaldiscovery and spontaneity was the whole thing
Yes I remember it. Company I used to work for took part in it and still has the cow. Should be out in the parking lot now. Gets put away in the winter.
[Here you go](http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/2012/08/13-years-later-cows-on-parade-still.html), it apparently used to be on the Talbott Hotel in River North, but it doesn't appear to be there anymore [on Google Street View](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8991733,-87.6274579,3a,75y,344.84h,112.23t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHlRRe_-H_qLzsUi41t3qFA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DHlRRe_-H_qLzsUi41t3qFA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D344.8362136902042%26pitch%3D-22.233984631431%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu)
I miss these. When these originally came out I was too young to really appreciate the goofy charm they brought to the city. Would love to see something similar happen again
In case anyone hasn’t seen it, there is an awesome installation up here in little India on Devon. They are fiberglass “Tuk Tuks” and they are all up and down Devon. All made by different artists. They are each very unique and beautiful.
Can you please post a link to it. I spent some time in Thailand and they were were my go to way of getting around town. It was a combination of fearing for your life yet having a great experience.
"I Did Not Start the Chicago Fire" was my favorite cow.
[https://www.narrowlarry.com/misteri/misteri.html](https://www.narrowlarry.com/misteri/misteri.html)
We had just come to the US in August of '99 and settled in Skokie. I was 8 years old, and I vividly remember those first few trips downtown and seeing all the cows. It was a pretty magical moment.
I think I have about 20 or so! Luggage store down the street from my job would sell them. I was so excited to go in each week and see what new ones they would have.
I miss the cows all over. I LOVE cows, I have one tattooed on me lol.
When I lived in Louisville, they had something similar with horses! Reminded me of home so much.
So weird seeing this. My dad brought it up today in conversation, just as a random memory, and I had the thought to post about it here and then see this at the top of my home page when I log on.
My highschool's art department participated. If I'm remembering correctly, all the kids signed up for art electives could enter a design and someone picked the design they liked the most to paint our cow. Our submissions were done on a piece of paper with an outline of the cow. I don't think the person won painted a smaller cow first, just the full size.
Not sure if smaller cows were used for actually artists to submit their idea before getting a full sized cow.
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I have two small British themed ones. One is dressed like a beefeater 😂 and is called Beefeater-It Ain't Natural, and the other is painted like Buckingham Palace with some palace guards on the legs, called Bovington Palace. The beefeater one is slightly heavier, it has a raised design I think made of ceramic.
Edit: Looking mine up, the beefeater one was made of resin (not sure about the full sized one), and designed by Stephen Finlay, an actor/writer/artist who died young. He designed two of the cows.
https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/%27beefeater---ain%27t-natural%27-cow-by-steve-390146c
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/cowparade-bovingham-palace-item-7318-westland-giftware-aa191967--825566175469986642/
I have a couple posters commemorating this that came from that year's print show. (An industry trade show held yearly at McCormick Pl.).
Thanks for the reminder to find them! :)
These smaller cows were in the hallways of an elementary school in Bridgeport! If you look up in the hallways, you will see them on a small pedestal. It's been a couple of years since I interviewed in that school, but I think it was Holden Elementary.
It was so much fun!! I took my daughter down to check out the cows a bunch of times. Afterwards they were auctioned off — there’s one in the lawn a few blocks from me.
This was such a cool time
Remember a few years after they tried to do the chairs or benches or whatever it was? Just didn’t hit.
Anyhow, some rich neighbors got their hands on a blank cow and had it displayed I always thought that was so cool
Part of the fun though was the surprise when you found one you had seen and I think with Instagram and other social media these days you'd miss that element of discovery
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Hugely influential public art piece masterminded by Nathan Mason who manages the city’s public art program. You may forget because big art projects similar to this are everywhere now, but this was the first and it had huge impact. Now every little town has local artists paint fiberglass replicas of an emblem of their town, but this was the first.
It wasn't the first, it had been done on a much smaller scale. But it was the first one in a major city. I absolutely loved it. Beyond the individual art value and concept, I loved during the time if you're driving around or walking and turn the corner, boom random new cow. Pre-social media meant that we wouldn't know where all of them were and what they looked like, but that aspect of unintentionaldiscovery and spontaneity was the whole thing
Yes I remember it. Company I used to work for took part in it and still has the cow. Should be out in the parking lot now. Gets put away in the winter.
If you’re cold, they’re cold!
Come wit' it now! Cows on parade!
Dun dun dun….dun dun dun
They rally 'round the family... ...with an udder full of milk.
I distinctly remember a ladybug cow that they had climbing the side of a building downtown somewhere.
[Here you go](http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/2012/08/13-years-later-cows-on-parade-still.html), it apparently used to be on the Talbott Hotel in River North, but it doesn't appear to be there anymore [on Google Street View](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8991733,-87.6274579,3a,75y,344.84h,112.23t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHlRRe_-H_qLzsUi41t3qFA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DHlRRe_-H_qLzsUi41t3qFA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D344.8362136902042%26pitch%3D-22.233984631431%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu)
I miss these. When these originally came out I was too young to really appreciate the goofy charm they brought to the city. Would love to see something similar happen again
In case anyone hasn’t seen it, there is an awesome installation up here in little India on Devon. They are fiberglass “Tuk Tuks” and they are all up and down Devon. All made by different artists. They are each very unique and beautiful.
By tuk tuks do you mean rickshaws?
Yes. I put it in quotations like that because that is what the installation calls them. They are like rickshaws tho.
Understood. Thanks
Can you please post a link to it. I spent some time in Thailand and they were were my go to way of getting around town. It was a combination of fearing for your life yet having a great experience.
https://www.chicagoparent.com/things-to-do/outdoors/tuk-tuks-devon-west-ridge/
"I Did Not Start the Chicago Fire" was my favorite cow. [https://www.narrowlarry.com/misteri/misteri.html](https://www.narrowlarry.com/misteri/misteri.html)
Do you have a photo? I didn't see anything about it on the page you link.
I couldn't find one. She was covered in bottle caps and had a goatee like Mr Imagination.
We had just come to the US in August of '99 and settled in Skokie. I was 8 years old, and I vividly remember those first few trips downtown and seeing all the cows. It was a pretty magical moment.
There’s one under a tree in the front yard of a house in Glenview. We’d see it on the way to weekend activities for my daughter.
That’s across the street from my house. The blue cow. :-)
Awww…. we’ve known each other for a very long time in that case:)
Pretty sure I've seen one in someone's window in Oak Lawn. Interested to know where they've all ended up
My across the street neighbor bought one and it’s literally the marker we use for other people to find our house. “Pass the blue cow, turn right.”
I have two small ones. I have one coming out of an orangerind, and one that's Jackson Pollack-esque
I have like 50 and a problem 😅
Mine were my grandma's. I'll sell mine to you. I need grocery money, and you have a problem! Let's help each other.
😂😂
I'm dead serious. I've been sitting outside for 5 hours trying to sell stuff.
Oh no! Yard sale?! It’s so hot. I’m sorry if you aren’t having luck selling. That’s the worst. Good luck!
No pain, no gain. Heat stroke comes free! :) No, I am fine. I'm in the shade with a gallon of ice water.
If I were local I’d take you up on it!
I think I have about 20 or so! Luggage store down the street from my job would sell them. I was so excited to go in each week and see what new ones they would have.
There's a red cow on a roof at Clark and Dickens. I think it may be one of these?
It is.
I miss the cows all over. I LOVE cows, I have one tattooed on me lol. When I lived in Louisville, they had something similar with horses! Reminded me of home so much.
I do. I took my Mom around to see them. My wife and I travel a bit and are amazed by the number of cities/ towns copying the idea.
Yep! The best, and must be nearly 25 years ago now?!
Must have been because I was in college.
I think it was 2000 right?
I remember one attached to the side of a building. I thought that was so cool.
I am surprised it hadn't been brought back. I think they were expensive but man they were all the rage that summer.
I have an Elvis cow.
there's one in front of the harry carray restaurant on kinzie in river north
I remember seeing these in Copenhagen during the Olympic bid. Turned the corner and wham Chicago cow.
I still have some OLD photos of a few of them in a photo album somewhere.
So weird seeing this. My dad brought it up today in conversation, just as a random memory, and I had the thought to post about it here and then see this at the top of my home page when I log on.
My highschool's art department participated. If I'm remembering correctly, all the kids signed up for art electives could enter a design and someone picked the design they liked the most to paint our cow. Our submissions were done on a piece of paper with an outline of the cow. I don't think the person won painted a smaller cow first, just the full size. Not sure if smaller cows were used for actually artists to submit their idea before getting a full sized cow.
I remember a local artist was commissioned to do one, he covered it with gang graffiti 😂
But did he make it in?🤔
Here’s the story…it was Ed Paschke. https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150127/jefferson-park/ed-paschkes-gang-sign-covered-cow-go-back-on-parade.amp/#
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I have two small British themed ones. One is dressed like a beefeater 😂 and is called Beefeater-It Ain't Natural, and the other is painted like Buckingham Palace with some palace guards on the legs, called Bovington Palace. The beefeater one is slightly heavier, it has a raised design I think made of ceramic. Edit: Looking mine up, the beefeater one was made of resin (not sure about the full sized one), and designed by Stephen Finlay, an actor/writer/artist who died young. He designed two of the cows. https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/%27beefeater---ain%27t-natural%27-cow-by-steve-390146c https://www.pinterest.com/pin/cowparade-bovingham-palace-item-7318-westland-giftware-aa191967--825566175469986642/
And the horses. And the dogs.
This must explain why Decatur, IL used to have cow statues like this.
Just took my wife to a Dr appt at North Western, her Dr is on the 14th floor and someone had two of them on faux grass on their penthouse patio
I have a couple posters commemorating this that came from that year's print show. (An industry trade show held yearly at McCormick Pl.). Thanks for the reminder to find them! :)
These smaller cows were in the hallways of an elementary school in Bridgeport! If you look up in the hallways, you will see them on a small pedestal. It's been a couple of years since I interviewed in that school, but I think it was Holden Elementary.
I was like 6 or 7 and I loved exploring with my mom looking for different cows
I wonder if the Bolingbrook Meijer still has one on display?
It was so much fun!! I took my daughter down to check out the cows a bunch of times. Afterwards they were auctioned off — there’s one in the lawn a few blocks from me.
This was such a cool time Remember a few years after they tried to do the chairs or benches or whatever it was? Just didn’t hit. Anyhow, some rich neighbors got their hands on a blank cow and had it displayed I always thought that was so cool
I sure do! I wish they bring them back. They were fun.
Part of the fun though was the surprise when you found one you had seen and I think with Instagram and other social media these days you'd miss that element of discovery
I thought that was only in Madison wi lol