More Cows

A while back, I posted a series of cow postcards.  I was surprised at  how many I had.  (You can check them out here (Swiss cows), here (German cows), here (cow identification), here (modern cow art), and here (Texan cows).  The cows above are Dutch cows, sent by Dina in The Netherlands through Postcrossing.  I love two things about this card. 

1.  The perspective of the photo.  Who would have thought these cows could look so majestic?

2.  The message from Dina:  "This is a card about cows.  We have a lot of them here."

My fascination with cows isn't an obsession, but I am intrigued.  At one point in my life, I had quite a few cow tchotchkes around, and still have a few of them, including a ceramic cow that must be from the 20s or 30s (it was my grandmother's) complete with chiffon dress, straw hat and pearls, and the cow we call "the house deity" who is quite majestic, even with a shawl collar robe over his shoulders.  I'd kind of forgotten about all the cows, until they started showing up as postcards.

Swiss Cows

We have to love Swiss cows - from them we get Swiss cheese and Swiss chocolates!

This is another Postcrossing postcard, from a Swiss mom.  She sent me a big stack of postcards, some made from pictures she'd taken herself, as a "thank you" for sending her a stack of San Francisco postcards.  Turns out her daughter, age 12, is a HUGE San Francisco fan, and the mom wanted to give her a bunch of San Francisco postcards for Christmas.  I was more than happy to oblige, and sent several.  In return, not only did I receive several great postcards (including this one), I also received a picture of the daughter, in a San Francisco t-shirt, holding up my postcards and looking very happy. 

Definitely made my day.

The Last Cows Standing

Another cow postcard, this one from Leny, a fellow Postcrossing member.  From the back of the card, "I'm Leny...  I live in the south of the Netherlands, a few km from Germany and Belgium...."  How many beautiful corners of the world there are, and here's a postcard from one of them.

And Even More Cows

Should I be calling this the "cow series" instead of the "animal series"?  This is the third postcard featuring cows and I actually  have a couple more!  Do the cows warrant their own series?  It is a subseries of the animal series?  One could get carried away with classifying, if one were so inclined. 

Note to self:  must reconfigure postcard classification system.

More Cows

It's a two- fer!  (Two for one, for the non-native English speaking readers.)

Not only does this belong to the animal series, but it also qualifies as part of an art series - "Sofa Art XIII Down on the Farm".

Actually, Sofa Art is an annual art competition in Visalia, California, and recently completed its 16th year. Visalia is in the central valley of California, an area not necessarily known for its art scene. However, you can't beat if for its tree fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots) and nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts).

 From the website: 

The first Sofa Art Show was held in 1996 as a playful response to an unflattering depiction of Visalia’s local art scene as described by a local newspaper writer. Sofa Art Co-Founder Varian Mace, then an art instructor at College of the Sequoias, shared the article with her classes and challenged them to make some “real sofa art” in response. The resulting exhibition was a hit, to say the least, and has been an annual Visalia tradition ever since.

It sounds like a lot of fun, and I can only imagine what additional sofa art might look like.  Is all sofa art 2-dimensional, or does it include sculpture as well?

P.S.  A shout out to my friend, Steve, who lives in Visalia and is a constant contributor to my ever-growing postcard collection.  Thanks, Steve!

Speaking of Beefeaters

Speaking of Beefeaters. 

I have to say, though, that these look like milk cows, not beef cows.  Not that I'm an expert on cows, but  I did visit a Texas cattle ranch once.

In any case, here's the first in a new animal series

I present to you, the cow!