Senior Art Thesis

Ella MacVeagh

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I painted my first cow three years ago, not knowing then what importance this animal would come to have in my life. I’m drawn to them—their immense curving sides, their doleful eyes with loping lashes, their surprisingly sharp hips that jut out, and the gentle slope of their udders.

This year, my project has played with line, the power of line to abstract but also represent reality. With the unbroken line, I can imitate the curves and slopes and sharpness of cows. But the cow is more than its figure. Cows to me embody a purely inquisitive nature, one that drives them to investigate a bystander next to their pasture. While hesitant, cows can be playful too—I spent afternoons playing a bovine / human version of redlight-greenlight with two cows in a field.
Cows are at once gentle and powerful; their size is part of their sweetness. In a herd, cows move together, each gaining safety and strength from the others at her side. In our current political climate, we have seen this power harnessed by the Me Too movement and Women’s March.

When the feminine entity is united, there is power, awe, color, and joy.

Thank you to the Academic Fund for Seniors for their generosity and support of this project.

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