Have you noticed all the livestock lingering on city sidewalks these days? Pigs have been spotted in Cincinnati and Seattle, and donkeys and elephants are roaming Washington, D.C. There have been buffalos in Buffalo, and cows in Houston and New York City. Now a herd of horses has taken over downtown Billings, Mont.

Public art: A win-win opportunity

Mark Moak spent about 260 hours creating his “Trojan Horse.”

The craze for decorating and auctioning off animals is roaming the nation. In the summer of 1998, businessman Peter Hanig was captivated by the original Cow Parade display while visiting Zurich, Switzerland. The next year, he brought Cows On Parade to the streets of Chicago and a national fad was born.

Jane Waggoner Deschner, Billings volunteer artist-coordinator for “The Horse, of Course!” project, was asked why this type of public art fund-raiser has been so successful. “Because the [works] are so accessible,” replies Deschner. “People know they can touch them.”

By taking art out of traditional exhibition spaces, Deschner hopes that people who have never thought about going into a gallery or museum will become interested in art, artists and the artistic process.

To help raise funds to renovate the 1909 Northern Pacific Railway Depot in Billings, Deschner asked 35 local artists to submit slides of their artwork and a résumé for “The Horse, Of Course!” project.

Other committee members secured sponsorship for the purchase of the fiberglass colts and a small honorarium to cover the artists’ expenses. Following the advice of project leaders from other cities, Deschner convinced the committee not to assign sponsors to any specific horse. She did not want the artists to feel pressured to incorporate the sponsors’ logos or colors into their design.

Trojan Horse

(Left) Moak’s horse during construction, and (Right) his preliminary drawing of the horse.

While many of the horses became painted sculptures, a few artisans couldn’t resist the urge to decorate their beasts with more elaborate ornamentation.

Rocky Mountain College Art Professor Mark S. Moak spent several seasons on a Minoan excavation in Crete. Intrigued by the Aegean Bronze Age, he submitted a scale drawing with his proposal for “Trojan Horse.”

Moak started by installing a wooden frame over his horse and building a wooden cart. He created Odysseus the Greek warrior and Athena the goddess of battle out of kiln-fired clay for eyepieces. He embossed the death mask of Agamemnon on a side armor plate.

His effort required 260 hours and 240 pounds of steel, copper, brass and bronze to cover the frame and cart. Along the way, Moak recorded his progress and humorous thoughts in his online journal.

Pinto Keeper

Detail of Lori Blaylock’s “Pinto Keeper,” created with 125 pounds of kidney and pinto beans.

For “Pinto Keeper,” Billings artist Lori Blaylock used 125 pounds of black and dark red kidney beans and, of course, pinto beans. Before adhering 45 canisters of construction grade Liquid Nails to thousands of legumes, she spray-painted the colors of the beans on areas of her horse.

The body of the horse is covered with beans in a densely packed single layer, but the mane and tail have several layers creating a realistic hair texture.

Blaylock scattered symbolic designs over Pinto’s hide to represent the earth, the sea and the sky. She added a classic Native American handprint motif on the horse’s right rear flank.

Crazy Horse

 

Professional quilter John Flynn covered his “Crazy Horse” in a Victorian-style quilt made from a few hundred pieces of velvets and silks that were heavily machine embroidered.

Quilter John Flynn’s “Crazy Horse.”

He turned the work into a family affair by having his wife, children, sisters, and nieces assist him with the embroidered designs and piecing. They selected Native American symbols and Montana wildlife for the motifs and used tribal names and famous Montana politicians for the crazy quilt
fans.

His team used over 300 colors of embroidery thread and several bottles of Fray-Check. To finish it off, Flynn enlisted the hand-beading skills of Native American Jerry (Black Butterfly) Belgarde. She beaded Crazy Horse’s eyes using a traditional brain-tanned deer leather (wood-smoked leather treated with deer brains for softness).

Flynn describes himself as a quilt engineer who spends most of his time figuring out simpler ways to execute quilting tasks. He is well known in the quilting industry for his Flynn Multi-Frame System. His books, “Trapunto and Stippling” and “Double Wedding Ring,” demonstrate more efficient methods for creating traditional quilts.

One of his award-winning quilts, “The Feathered Sun,” is an adaptation of traditional Native American Buffalo Robe Paintings.

Kidd

Detail of the head of “Kidd.”

To create the vivid images for “Kidd,” Carol Baker photo-transferred fabric with old time “dime novel” covers and vintage postcards showing cowboy/cowgirl themes in vibrant 1930s and 1940s colors. She decoupaged the materials onto the horse, creating a patchwork-style collage with very large to very small blocks.

Local economy gets a boost

 

Deschner says since the depot restoration began, retail business increased markedly in the historic district and the effect rippled into downtown. More visitors are making Billings a destination; residents are proud and excited about their hometown. In fact, anyone flying into Billings can’t miss seeing “Crazy Horse” mounted at the airport.

All 35 embellished horses, to be auctioned off on Sept. 7, are on display around Billings through August. Interested bidders can contact the Billings Depot Inc. at (406) 656-7273.