Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 19 October 2003 Vol 2 Issue: #37 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, As a retired person, I keep busy. In fact I always wonder how I had time to work when I was fully employed. Anyway to satisfy part of my being, I work part time for a Clerk of Common Pleas Courts. Part of my position is to help her keep up with literature. She furnishes the journals and I furnish the time to read them. They cover a good diversity .... legislative matters, computer technology, business journals ... things like that. So, it is always true that I learn new things while looking for other things. I was reading a periodical called "FastCompany" this week. On page 138 [Nov 2003] I learned what a "big" mouth can get you. Norma "Duffy" Lyon, who is a bit older than me, but no less a braggart, for she said, "I can do it better!" She took 800 pounds of unsalted, five year-old butter and a week of eight hour days to sculpt an Ayrshire [cow] for the Iowa State Fair. How would you like that to display at your local Fair? She has sculpt celebrities, and things from Harley Cycles to the Last Supper. She works in a refrigerated environment and is a great conservationist ... she dismantles her sculptures and freezes the butter until the next project. Well, the subject intrigued me, so I went off to the internet and tested the search engines for "butter sculpting". I encourage you to do the same ... there is a "ton" of sites containing pictures and articles. They range from Tibetan monks creating elaborate scenes to cows at State Fairs and other statues. There are the many "clever" [head]lines, such as "high-cholesterol art", and "a pat on the back for the butter sculptor". In Tibet, to celebrate the New Year, Buddhist monks sculpt stories or fables from yak-butter. Some of them reach a height of 30 feet and are lit with special "butter" lamps. In fact, I've read where butter sculpture an ancient art in Tibet. The creations symbolized impermanence which is basic to their form of Buddhism. In our culture the art is connected to County and State Fairs and "sideshows". Late in the 19thcentury, San Franciscan, Caroline Brooks was nationally known for her butter sculpture. She became known as the "Butterlady". Unlike the Tibetans and modern sculptors, Ms Brooks work was prelude to marble sculptures. Early in the 20th century, J E Wallace worked in large coolers to sculpt cows for agricultural fairs. The art remains popular today all across the United States. Norma Lyons has created 30 butter cows for the Illinois State Fair. She is about or almost 75 years old. A 2001 newspaper article said she would probably retire. She was the Grand Marshall for the 2001 parade in Springfield, IL, opening that year's fair. Ms Lyons is from Toledo. Maybe unfortunate for northwestern Ohioans, not Toledo, Ohio, but Toledo, Iowa. It was at the Iowa State Fair that she sculpted the Last Supper. This scene took over a ton of butter. Her cow sculptures are all life size. She became Iowa's State Fair sculptress in 1960, after she had commented that she could do better than a previous cow that had been displayed at the fair. Ms "Duffy" studied with Christian Petersen. Petersen was an artist in residence a Iowa State from 1934 to 1955. In 2000, she sculpted Mr Petersen sculpting his famous work, "The Gentle Doctor". In Pennsylvania a committee of the dairy industry picks a theme, however because it was September 2001, Edward Shank was given "liberty" to create a scene. In great secrecy he worked and when he revealed his sculpture it contained a fireman directing a hose, a police officer handing a large flag to a uniformed soldier in a Special Operations beret. The work of art took nearly 800 pounds of donated butter. In Minnesota last year [2002], in celebration of their first decade there, Tibetan Buddhists displayed delicate blossoms in colored butter. On another front, the Princess Kay of the Milky Way at the Minnesota State Fair serves as the official goodwill ambassador for Minnesota's dairy industry. One of the first official duties of the Princess Kay is to sit in a rotating cooler for several hours on the opening day of the fair to have her likeness sculpted in a 90-pound block of butter. Butter sculpting at the Minnesota State Fair is to highlight the state's publicity as the "butter capital of the nation." 2100 pounds of butter formed three Hasbro creations for display at the 2000 Ohio State Fair. A Tonka truck, Furby, and Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly were formed by Hasbro sculptor in Cincinnati. The Hasbro lead sculptor, Bob Kling, and others volunteered to take over from 36 year veteran of carved butter cows, calves and famous Ohioans, Dan Ross, at the state fair when he retired. To maintain the tradition, the Bob Kling artists also sculpted a cow and calf. Butter sculpture is not exclusive to agriculture and State fairs. In the 1800's many frontier women molded and imprinted their homemade butter. Part of my position with a Clerk of Common Pleas Courts is to e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html