Ukrainian American artist participates in CowParade public art exhibiton (06/25/00)

Ukrainian American artist participates in CowParade public art exhibiton

WEST ORANGE, N.J. - A herd of over 25 colorful, life-size bovines painted by artists hailing from New Jersey to the Netherlands are on display grazing throughout West Orange since June 23 as part of a unique and off-beat summerlong CowParade public art exhibition.

After its unprecedented success in Zurich, where it originated in 1998, CowParade made its U.S. debut in Chicago in the summer of 1999 and has spread to New York City, West Orange and Hartford, Conn., for the summer of 2000 where over 500 cows will be exhibited.

The cows are sponsored by local businesses and will be auctioned to raise money for their favorite charities at the end of the summer. (Following the exhibit in Chicago, the auction raised $3.5 million for charity, with the average bid on a cow nearly $25,000.)

Among the several established local artists designing cows for the pasture in New Jersey is Montclair artist Christina Saj.

In her project titled "Moo-net at Giverny," Ms. Saj choose to depart from her own style and demonstrate her skill and mastery of technique by reinterpreting the work of the French Impressionist artist, Claude Monet. Her vision was to provide a decorative work that would bring images of art usually found in museums into a public space within the community.

In preparation for her project, Ms. Saj examined Monet's paintings at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, closely studying the artist's style. In her project, she focused on creating loose brushstrokes, the carefull rendering of areas of light and shade, and in composing a profusion of the artist's favorite floral images from his beloved gardens at Giverny.

"Moo-net at Giverny" was unveiled, along with the rest of the herd, on Friday, June 23, at the Essex Green Shopping Center in West Orange where it will be on display through Labor Day.

"Moo-net at Giverny" is sponsored by the Shauger Group of West Orange, which has designated the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Essex as the beneficiary of "Moo-net at Giverny" following the CowParade auction, to be held in Spetember.

Ms. Saj regularly exhibits her work, and has shown throughout the United States and Canada. Information about her work as well as the West Orange CowParade can be found at http://www.artonline.net/

Among renowned artists designing their white fiberglass bovines in CowParade West Orange 2000 are architects Robert M. Stern and Michael Graves, while artist/actor Federico Castelluccion of "The Sopranos" has also envisioned a beautiful bovine.

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