Since 1999, when a Chicago businessman helped create the popular “Cows on Parade” public art project in the Windy City (which itself was based on an earlier public art effort in Zurich, Switzerland), dozens of cities across America have concocted similar public art installations involving various fiber glass animal statues.
For example, Milwaukee had “Beasties” (whimsical four-legged creatures created by a local artist), while Racine, Wisconsin had bears, Macomb, Illinois had bulldogs, Atlanta had dolphins, Salt Lake City had bison and Seattle had pigs. Typically, the large statues are painted or decorated by local artists who are sponsored by local businesses.
The craze has also inspired a number of Nevada communities to develop their own animals on parade public art projects, with the best-known ones being the “Counting Sheep” project sponsored by Reno’s Artown in 2005, and Elko’s “Centennial Boots” public art installation created for that community’s 100th anniversary in 2017.
“Counting Sheep” involved 25 fiberglass bighorn sheep that were painted by Nevada-based artists and placed around Reno for a limited time. One of the statues, “Nevada Lambscape,” was painted by Lake Tahoe landscape artist Phyllis Shafer. The work, which remains on permanent display in the McKinley Arts & Culture Center in Reno, depicts the wide Nevada landscape across the body of the sheep with legs covered with sagebrush.
Other sheep that were on display included artist Tim Guthrie’s “Dirty Harry Downwinder,” a bighorn sheep with an atomic mushroom cloud exploding from its back, Zoltan Janvary’s “False Idol,” with its gambling imagery serving as a warning for those who worship winning, and Darcie Park’s “Rodeo Ram,” a bighorn sheep hobby horse complete with a saddle and American flag blanket.
Elko’s “Centennial Boots” project is ongoing, with new boots appearing periodically in the northeastern Nevada city (there are now about 50). The boots, in fact, are so popular that the city developed a “Boot Walk Map,” which pinpoints the locations of some 36 of the 110-pound, six-foot tall cowboy boots.
Each of the shoes is made of polyurethane resin and decorated by a local artist. For example, one depicts a Central Pacific train steaming through the Ruby Mountains, while another in front of the Star Hotel is a tribute to the hotel’s rich Basque roots and history.
The boots can be found in front of the Elko Public Library, the Great Basin College, various government offices, and dozens of businesses. Since each tells a part of the Elko story, they serve as a kind of community-wide scavenger hunt for those who seek them out.
Among the highlights are artist Inga Ojala’s boot displaying a trout-filled stream rushing down the Rubies, flanked by a mountain goat and a bighorn sheep (in front of the LP Insurance Building) and a boot painted with a guitar and banjo, created by Tuscarora artist Sidne Teske with a realistic spur crafted by metal sculptor Susan Church (in front of the Western Folklife Center).
One of the most unique is a boot painted by Elko architect Catherine Wines and her sister-in-law, Heather, who created “Starry Elko Night,” a tribute to Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.” In Wines’ version, the Elko skyline has replaced Saint-Remy-de-Provence, but the original’s psychedelic overtones remain.
For more information about Elko’s Centennial Boots go to: https://everythingelko.com/centennial-boots/. For information about Reno’s “Counting Sheep” project, check out the Reno News and Review’s 2005 story about it at: https://renonr.com/2005/07/07/counting-rams/.
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