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Visual Art by Anne Severson BART HABERMILLER The Patient Bull Udderly Art Used copper pennies lay side-by-side as they shimmer in the sun across the rolling back of Bart Habermiller’s cow. The Patient Bull, commissioned by Avenir Capital Corporation, is just part of the fun and whimsy that over 100 Udderly Art cows have brought to Calgary streets this summer. "I should do one of these cows!" was Habermiller’s first thought when he heard of the idea last spring. He lives with the assumption that "any chance to talk to people about art is good." This eternal optimist has been a pillar of Calgary’s cutting contemporary art edge for over 15 years. Habermiller graduated from ACA in 1987, followed by an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago with a Full Merit Scholarship in 1990. Here in Calgary, this installation artist has made a positive influential impact on the community as a practising artist, curator and administrator. Habermiller encourages establishing a vital interaction of the public with the beauty of art. Hence his connection to Udderly Art. "If I was going to do a cow, what would it look like?" he wondered. As an installation sculptor, he often works with found and ordinary objects to make the ordinary extraordinary. A common penny lying in the street caught his eye as others walked by and ignored it. Picking it up, this almost valueless single copper coin started him thinking about taking one small thing and sharing it with others to make a beautiful statement. This chain of events led to Habermiller’s irregularly shaped blanket of recycled pennies – mostly Canadian coins, but also including American and similar-looking foreign coins – covering the fibreglass cow. To emphasize the sculptural, three-dimensional aspect, he started playing with the surface texture of the exterior and the uneven forms of the cow. To work with the shape – not against it – the artist placed special emphasis on bovine curves with a textured mantle of connecting pennies. He played with the idea of the varying colours of coins in bright sunlight on the undulating surface. The pennies roll like waves as the long rays of the late afternoon sun bring out the coppery greens of these used, "matured" pennies. To view optimally, move around the cow and look at the pennies from different angles – to see what sun and shade does to different colours and texture. Round pennies unify the work as they are evenly spaced next to each other. Viewed close up, each coin from the random sampling becomes individual with alignment and double-sidedness. The textured surface of such common objects on the cow invites touching, stroking and petting. Drag your hand across the pennies and feel the tingle. Now feel that lump of coins in your pocket and enjoy how the common and ordinary can become extraordinary. Will the penny in your hand ever feel the same again? Will you ever see a penny in the same light? This is definitely a "Bart cow," reflecting the artist and his re-interpretation of something common – or taken for granted – in our everyday lives, and turning it into something new. He recycles, re-uses and re-looks, often spinning straw into gold. This impact of uniqueness, yet sharing sameness, is an underlying comment of societal relationships, of the special individuality that each of us has, even in group situations. Individuals can work together to make something beautiful, to place the aesthetics of art into our everyday lives. Save your pennies, savour each moment and it will add up to something beautiful, to something pleasing in itself – to memories The Courthouse area at 7th Avenue and 4th Street S.W. was where I last saw Habermiller’s cash cow, although Paul Kuhn Fine Arts usually represents him. For more information on one of Calgary’s most engaging artists, check his Web site at www.members.tripod.com/habermiller/.

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