CowParade Wisconsin Auction Raises Big Moo-lah

The CowParade Wisconsin 2006 herd of artistically created fiberglass cows that grazed Madison and surrounding communities for nearly five months has raised more than $550,000 to benefit charity. The majority of the proceeds will help build the new American Family Children's Hospital in Madison . Proceeds will also benefit more than 30 other non-profit organizations.

Live Auction Results
The "Dazzle in Dairyland" live auction drew more than 500 people to the Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall on Friday, November 10. The 44 cows offered at the live auction sold for $363,500 – an average of nearly $8,300 per cow.

A fan in Brno writes:
**In this second discursive footnote, I note that the greatest cow of any cow parade ever is without question "Babushka Marushka the Polka Cow" by artist Jennifer Jastrab from the 2006 Wisconsin Cow Parade.
Thanks! And fans of Babu will be happy to hear she raised $4000. for charity at the live aucton in November!
I highly recommend this entertaining and informative blog!
http://morskyjezek.blogspot.com

Babushka Marushka the Polka Cow!

My two favorite people in the world accompanied grandma to visit Babu. They were very disappointed to report that someone had broken off not one, but three pieces of the babushka. What can I say kids...some people think cow tipping is fun. But seriously folks, these cows are a fundraiser for the new children's hospital. Someone you know may need that hospital one day and the more money that Cow Parade Madison can raise, the more we will be able to lend support to this new facility. Let's pass the word on that vandalizing the cows is not a good idea!

Czech Mama Spends a Summer Afternoon Taking in Cows and Iced Lattes

  

Heather is a talented young writer from WI who generously featured Babu on her blog.
Heather's niece was visiting from Florida and she is pictured here with her babushka. Do Floridians wear babushkas? Babu thanks you!
Read more from Heather here:
http://wordtrix.blogspot.com

If you look very closely
you will see that Babu's
tail is also a paint brush.

Here is the official Cow Parade Promo photo of Babu. If you would like to send a postcard of this darling to all your friends, follow this link: http://wisconsin.cowparade.com

Click on "cows" when you get to the page. Babu is under the letter B.

Babu's calf pics

udderly delightful

More blabbering from the barn...the end of March is near!
My morning after pic... The painting of the babushka was going so well that only a fool would stop. Before I knew it the sun was rising.The tunes were good, the phone wasn't ringing and me and the caffeine decided to let the paint flow. Nothing like a deadline to get the job in high gear!

More notes from the barn: March 2006
This lovely gal has already logged 200 hours of my time! I often spent large blocks of time painting and felt like I accomplished very little. These cows are life size folks and full of curves! ("Real gals have them" and Babu is no exception.) It isn't easy painting on dips and curves, not to mention the crawling around and under legs and udders. In the pic above Babu is about 2/3 complete. Her babushka is primed and ready to be painted. The babushka ties survived the chewing festival of another local four legged creature, an old, blind American eskimo doggie who was not happy about the attention Babu was taking away from him. Doggie survived albeit a sour stomach for several days following...
Note to myself: Pay more attention to dog!

Notes from the barn....March '06
I have spent the last several weeks painting Babu and waiting for the warmer weather to arrive. The clock is ticking and I need to get the babushka project going. I decided I really couldn't wait any longer and turned off the heat and got busy saturating the handstitched babushka with fiberglass resin. It took a whole evening from start to finish. In the pic above, Babu's ears are covered to protect them from becoming slopped up with resin. Once the the babushka was saturated, it was placed on Babu and arranged to look like a scarf would (easier said than done). The blow drier came out to speed along the setting process. Next I allowed the babushka to "set" and cure for a couple of days before I applied the white primer you see above.

From the barn: December 2005
The cow is in the dining room. I have been staring at it for two weeks wondering what I have gotten myself into! The holidays haven't given me a chance to get the studio supplies into Babu's temporary living quarters. Seeing the snow outside make's one think the April deadline is far off, but I know better.
I begin my search online for a fiberglass supplier. I have decided to begin the project by sketching and constructing the babushka because I think it will be the most challenging aspect of the project. The babushka has to first be sewn out of burlap then soaked in fiberglass resin. It has to be able to withstand four months of variable weather and people pawing. I am reinforcing parts of it with wire so it can be form-fitted to Babu's face and the ties will be able to hold a dynamic shape. Once the fiberglass resin hardens it will need to be prepared to accept paint. Two coats of gesso (a special primer for artistic painting) will need to be applied over the fiberglass babushka. Of course the weather will have to change before this portion of the project is completed, but everything must be ready to go when that warm day arrives!

Welcome to Babu's BaRn!
Babu was conceived especially for Cow Parade 2006 in Madison, WI USA.

Thanks to the gracious support of the WI Milk Marketing Board, Babu was born in the middle of a snowstorm, late in December 2005. Over 400 designs were submitted for the Madison Cow Parade and Babu was among the first twenty chosen. Her family is very proud of her!

Babu pays homage to my grandparents, immigrants of Polish and Czech heritage that came to Chicago in the early 1900's. My paternal grandmother left her family's dairy farm in Poland at only 15 years of age and arrived in Boston via steamship to work in the woolen mills. Her husband to be arrived from Poland a short time later. After a few years in Boston they headed to Chicago (the new Poland). My mother's side of the family, rich in the Czech genes and Bohemian spirit also made their home in Chicago. This side of the family is blessed with writers, actors and entrepreneurs. And to add more merry to the dairy theme, my maternal grandfather owned his own dairy delivery service while my grandmother ran a corner grocery...of course she sold icecream.

People ask me how I came up with the idea for Babu...because she isn't ordinary. Growing up my older sister and I were often seen wearing babushkas. We had everyday babushkas and ones that matched special dresses.They were a Fall and Spring wardrobe staple...and the neighbor girls wore them too!
Obviously due to my heritage I grew up learning how to dance the Polka. (Thanks to my older siblings I wasn't subjected to accordion lessons.) Polka dots are obviously a fun play on the word polka and who doesn't smile when they see polka dots, especially the big bright ones Babu is sporting? The actual name Babushka Marushka is all mom's idea which she willingly offered, knowing it fit so well. Babu is all about fun and I hope you enjoy her!