Holy Cow: Pray For Peaceful Coexistence

As a call for peace in a divisive world, Holy Cow: Pray For Peaceful Coexistence combines thousands of religious artifacts from major religious groups, human rights leaders and iconic peace symbolism.

The Dark Underbelly speaks to the problems that have occurred over the years with organized religions. For example, the “In Solidarity with Our Priests’ button was given out to parishioners during the child sexual abuse trials.

The cow’s face highlights that, while nearly all of the treasures on Holy Cow are vintage, many of them are actual antiques. For example, the Friendship Baptist Church pin, as well as, the Faith, Hope and Love pins are from the early 1900s. The crucifix in the middle of the cow’s forehead is early Bakelite.

The antique praying girl picture was in my bedroom all through my childhood. My mom bought it at a rummage sale because she thought the little girl with her ringlets looked like me. 

The cow’s tail is made from Ten Commandment jewelry that was often given to kids in Sunday School during the 1950s. The girls got bracelets and the boys received bookmarks for their Bibles.

The switch of the cow’s tail (yes, that is the cow anatomy term) is made from vintage crucifixes.

The Peace Pipe was given to me by my friend, Graham Nash, for use on the cow. It was gifted to him by a Native American at a CSN concert. If you look closely, you can see round smoke rings coming from the pipe’s bowl.  Other pieces from art friends include the rainbow over Noah’s ark from Paul Frank, “Give Peas a Chance” from Gemma Correll, and “Link in Bio” from Evie Yapelli. 

I was excited to find the perfect cow-sized rosary from Lourdes, France, at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It is from the early 1900s, and each bead is hand-carved.

I used color blocking on the hooves, udder and horn of the cow. It helps to define the parts of the cow but adds a layer of difficulty as each piece has to be the right color.

There are also a couple of humorous touches as in “The Udder Side” which points to the cow’s udders and “No Tipping” is a nod to Cow Tipping (knocking over a sleeping cow for entertainment) which was a myth started in the 1970s in rural areas. Cows do not sleep standing up and sneaking up on one is nearly impossible. It would require 900 pounds of force to topple a cow.

For information regarding the availability and purchase price, please contact bG Gallery at 310-906-4211 or info@bgartdealings.com. You can also contact Ramona’s wrangler, Nancy Larrew at 310-804-6825.