Welcome Back, Mootisse!
Photo by Joe O'Neill
Dickinson's colorful cow comes home
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
The new kid on campus doesn’t say much, but she knows how to make a colorful impression. And this time, Dickinson’s most stylish cow is here to stay.
Her name is Mootisse, and she was painted by students, and last seen on campus in 2004. That was during CowParade Harrisburg, a community arts event showcasing more than 100 hand-decorated, life-sized cow sculptures on the streets of Pennsylvania's capital and in neighboring towns. Approximately 75 bovine-sculpture exhibits have been staged in cities around the world since 1999.
Sponsored by local individuals and organizations and painted by local artists, the CowParade Harrisburg sculptures featured distinct themes. There was the Cowch, which included a bench with an upholstered seat; Constitution Cow, with its American history vibe; and Ad Cow Disease, sponsored by an area ad agency. The art & art-history students who created Mootisse added a jot of art history to the mix by painting a montage of Henri Matisse’s best-loved works on the cow's fiberglass flanks.
Mootise spent more than a decade in storage before returning to public display in July. (Her comeback arrives just as a similar arts initiative goes into full swing in nearby Harrisburg; you can see Dino-Mite Summer, featuring similarly decorated fiberglass dinosaur sculptures, in Pennsylvania’s capital city all summer long.)
Though now 12 (that's 58, in cow years), Mootise is as vivid as the day she was made, thanks to Professor of Art Anthony Cervino, who restored her fiberglass structure last spring; and Carley Zarzeka '15, who retouched her paint and added sealant. You’ll find Mootise grazing by the lawn of the Center for Sustainability Education.
Learn more
- Harrisburg Cow Parade
- The Campus and Community
- The Arts at Dickinson
- "Traveling Through Space and Line" (Carley Zarzeka '15)
- Latest News
Published July 15, 2016