Coming to life: Cow replicas are receiving paint, second downtown mural to follow 

By Kim McDarison

Accompanied by his energetic 15-month-old companion, “Kit,” an Australian Cattle Dog, area artist Larry Schultz arrived Wednesday morning at Rocky Lane Farm on Fort Atkinson’s south side.

The farm, which is owned by Fort Atkinson Beautification Council Vice President Alan Cook, and his wife, Gail, is serving as temporary home to seven nearly life-sized fiberglass cow replicas as they, each in turn, await a carefully placed covering of paint.

Each is sponsored by an area business and will be placed at one of several downtown Fort Atkinson locations. Each also is being painted to replicate one of seven dairy cow breeds, with each further made in the likeness of a specific cow. Depictions, which were selected and supplied to Schultz as references, each have significant meaning to the area and their sponsors.

The full project is dubbed “the parade of cows.”

Schultz may best be known locally for his work on a downtown Fort Atkinson mural, which was placed in 2019 on a city-owned water utility building and depicts historical scenes from Fort Atkinson. 

Upon completing the parade of cows project, Schultz will begin a second mural, which is slated for placement on the city’s downtown water reservoir building. Both projects — the parade of cows and the city’s second downtown mural — are anticipated to complete by mid-October, Fort Atkinson Beautification Council President Jude Hartwick said on Wednesday.

Schultz said that each cow replica takes between 12 and 15 hours to paint.

As of Wednesday morning, he had nearly completed one replica, a Jersey cow, he said, with only a finishing coat of varnish left undone.

The Jersey stood beside five other replicas all of which remained unpainted, with each completely white fiberglass form awaiting transformation into a lifelike rendition of a dairy breed.

Reference photographs for five of the seven cows have been supplied to Schultz, Cook said. The beautification council is seeking models for two breeds, the Milking Shorthorn and the Ayrshire,” he said.

Pulled from the fiberglass herd Wednesday was a form which was in the midst of its transformation. The replica would soon resemble a Brown Swiss cow, Schultz said.

The parade

Cook said cows, along with their sponsors and placement within the city of Fort Atkinson, are as follows:

• Jersey: Described by Schultz as a “dark Jersey,” the replica, which was nearly completed on Wednesday, will soon be placed near the Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce building, 244 N. Main St. The location is near the replica’s sponsor: Pete’s Tire and Auto Shop, 2 Madison Ave.

• Brown Swiss: the replica which was undergoing transformation on Wednesday is that of a Brown Swiss cow which will soon be placed near Frostie Freeze, 208 Madison Ave. The replica is sponsored by Whitewater-based Sunshine Genetics.

• Black and White Holstein: A replica of a Holstein cow will be placed near Subway in Fort Atkinson, 1550 Madison Ave. The fiberglass replica is sponsored by Crescent Beauty Farm, which is owned by the Hetts Family.

• Guernsey: Brian Knox and W.D. Hoard and Sons Company are the sponsors of a Guernsey cow replica which will be placed near the company’s downtown printing office, 28 Milwaukee Ave.

• Red and White Holstein: Deb Lundy, who, along with her family, operates a dairy farm in Jefferson, is the sponsor of a Red and White Holstein replica which will be placed near Jones Market, Fort Atkinson, 601 Jones Ave.

• Ayrshire: The Fort Community Credit Union or FCCU will be sponsoring a replica which will be painted to resemble an Ayrshire cow. The replica will be placed near the credit union’s office at 800 Madison Ave.

• Milking Shorthorn: The Tourism Office of the Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring a replica of a Milking Shorthorn cow, which will be placed near NASCO. 

Hartwick said the full project, which was initially estimated at $35,000, has cost about $45,000.

Thanks to private donations and a grant made available to the beautification council by the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation, the project’s costs are covered, he said. 

Sponsorships continue to be offered to allow businesses and residents who might like to participate an opportunity to be included on recognition plaques and websites as supporters of the project, Hartwick said. 

As additional funds are achieved, Cook said, the beautification council would not necessarily need to use all the funds made available to it by the foundation, at which point it would return those dollars to the foundation for use in other community projects.

According to Cook, much of the money used for the project so far has come through private donations.

Hartwick and Cook said at least 15 “smaller donations” have been made by area residents. The names of all donors will be added to a plaque at the Hoard Historical Museum and Dairy Shrine building and listed on the museum’s website. The Fort Atkinson Beautification Council’s website also will list names of donors, Hartwick said.

A retired dairy farmer since 2017, Cook said he had an idea for something like the parade of cows in the back of his mind.

The idea grew legs one day about three years ago after his daughter, Kylene Anderson, said she thought entering the city of Fort Atkinson from the west side was “boring.”

According to Cook, she suggested that the beautification council consider erecting a life-sized cow in honor of the Hetts family farm, which operated in the area. 

Cook said that after he proposed the idea to the members of the beautification council, they decided instead to make a project that represented all the dairy breeds.

After Cook pitched the project, the group spent time deliberating on where the cows should be placed, and there was some talk of having them erected in one spot, with cows of different breeds represented in different poses, perhaps one standing, while another was lying down, Cook recalled. 

“We couldn’t find one manufacturer who would make that,” he said, adding that after the group did some research, members learned that they would have to go to a plethora of manufacturers to find replicas formed into different poses. Also, he said, they learned that FAST Fiberglas, LLC, in Sparta, the manufacturer of the replicas which the group is using, was the best in the business when it came to cow replicas, Cook said. 

The replicas that Schultz was painting on Wednesday arrived on Cook’s farm nearly two weeks ago, Cook noted.

As he painted, Schultz talked about the differing aspects and challenges associated with painting large murals and replica cows.

Both types of projects provide “a workout,” involving standing and kneeling to reach different areas that need painting, he said.

With the cow project, a challenge is to give each replica dimension and not just paint “flat spots” on the forms, Schultz said. 

“It’s still like painting on a canvas,” he said, adding that the challenge is to create “realism,” through “roundness and shape.”

He did not want markings on the replicas to look simply like “patches of color,” he said. 

While painting each form, Schultz said, he has been provided with pictures of the actual cows that each is replicating.

Sharing reference photos of each cow, Cook said the Brown Swiss replica is painted in the likeness of “Top Acres Present ET.” A photograph of the animal was provided by Sunshine Genetics.

The Jersey cow is painted in the likeness of “Kunia Moon.” The cow’s picture was provided by Brandenburg Dairy Farm, Cook noted. 

The Hoard’s Dairyman Farm provided the likeness of a Guernsey named “Rolling Prairie Bella Blue,” and the black and white Holstein replica will be painted in the likeness of “Gene Acres Felicia May Fury.” The animal’s likeness was provided by Crescent Beauty Farm, Cook added. 

A red and White Holstein named “Silver-Rock TT Barbara,” serves as the model for the replica of her breed. The likeness was provided by Lundy Farms, he continued. 

Mural project

Additionally, Hartwick said, the painting of a second mural will begin after Schultz completes the parade of cows project. The project is anticipated to complete in October, he said.

Fundraising continues to support efforts to create the city’s second downtown mural painted by Schultz. The first, found on the city’s Water Department Service Center Building, 37 N. Water St., W., was completed in 2019. The second, which will be placed on the city’s downtown water reservoir building, 31 N. Water St., will be painted this fall.

The full cost of the second mural is $20,000, Hartwick said.

Thus far, he said, the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation has given the beautification council a grant of $10,000.

Hartwick said the group had about $3,000 on hand when it began its fundraising efforts in support of the project.

Another $7,000 is required to support the full project. 

Donors to the mural project will receive recognition by having their names placed on a plaque at the Hoard Historical Museum.

Hartwick said the beautification council is very supportive of the Hoard Historical Museum and works to “tie its projects” to the museum and the community’s history.

When completed, both of the mural projects and the parade of cows project will have signage placed which will offer some information about the projects and QR codes that will further tie the projects to the museums, Hartwick said. 

Both the parade of cows and the second mural project are anticipated to be completed by mid-October, at which time, Cook said, tentative plans call for a dedication ceremony to be held at the cow replica placed near the W.D. Hoard and Sons building.

Wisconsin’s “Alice in Dairyland” is scheduled to attend, Cook noted.

In the planning process are several activities with Alice, including an early Saturday morning visit to the cow replica at the W.D Hoard and Sons building, followed by a visit to the Fort Farmers Market, and the Hoard’s Dairyman Farm.

To learn more about the Fort Atkinson Beautification Council’s parade of cows and mural projects, visit its website: https://www.fortbeauty.org.

An earlier story about the beautification council’s parade of cows project is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/beautification-council-planning-cow-parade/.

An earlier story about the second mural proposed by the beautification council and its fundraising efforts is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/beautification-council-fundraising-underway-for-second-fort-downtown-mural/.

Kim McDarison photos unless otherwise indicated.