This acid washed cast stone sculpture of Demeter by Raymond Kaskey sits in front of the Maryland Department of Agriculture in Parole Maryland representing agriculture and fertility.
Ray Kaskey tells the story in a 2009 interview with Avis Berman:
RAYMOND J. KASKEY:... the Demeter and Cows was a competition to do something for the Maryland State Department of Agriculture headquarters. I thought of a classical—the goddess Demeter was the obvious thing to do - sort of a reclining classical figure. That's where the site offered a lot of inspiration because it was a kind of a —not a porte cochere [roofed covering from driveway to building entry], but a drive that came off the main road and exited you at the other end. So on either end I put guard animals, which were cows, as opposed to dogs or lions or whatever. So it was a bit of a humorous—
AVIS BERMAN: An agricultural guard. [Laughs.]
RAYMOND J. KASKEY: Yes. Yes, this was another one of those happenstance things. I was looking for a model. Sherry and I were walking around Du Pont Circle, and she ran into this model that she had seen at the Corcoran [College of Art + Design, Washington, D.C.] when she was taking a class—who was pregnant. And I thought, yes! That is a symbol of fertility if there ever was one. And she was willing to model. So we have a pregnant Demeter. And that was just one of those lucky [inaudible].
As Kaskey noted, Demeter is accompanied by guardian cows known to the Smithsonian as East Cow and West Cow. Here's West Cow dressed in a chef's cap and apron, to celebrate Thanksgiving.
and here's East Cow.
A 2014 article by Fox News declares the two cows to be among the “The world’s most pranked statues.” Their illustration appears be East Cow dressed up for the 4th of July:
For years, the stone cows perched outside Maryland’s Department of Agriculture have gotten seasonal costuming—apparently, at the hands of anonymous decorators—including leprechaun get-ups for St. Patrick's Day and bride-and-groom formals in June. Past costumes indicate that the cows have also been christened as Elmer, Elsie and Demeter.” — Fox News Published June 10, 2014.
“The Communications Office created the Bovine Beautification Bunch – a group of employees who use their own money and lunch hour to decorate the concrete cows in front of the building.”
No comments:
Post a Comment