A Tale of Humanity
“Before there was the written word, we used pictures to tell a story; pictographs, hieroglyphs, and cave paintings told the tales we wanted to tell. Transmitting something more than a simple thought. These images are a legacy of humanity, and they’re how we connect with ancestors of the past, and how our descendants will connect to us.”
It was at the Briscoe Western Art Museum where San Antonio artist Joyce Rebolloso came across this quote, and in doing so, inspired her CowParade sculpture.
Rebolloso’s A Garden of Us is part of the world’s largest public art initiative, CowParade. The art campaign features 70 local artist-painted cows across San Antonio. At the end of their visit, they’ll be auctioned off, benefiting the Christus Children’s Foundation.
Pearl’s pasture consists of four local artists’ work, and Joyce’s can be found underneath the Pearl sign at Pearl Park.
Nearby laughter fills the air from the kids playing in Gustav’s Geysers, and throughout our conversation, we were met with families stopping by to take selfies with Joyce’s CowParade sculpture. A Garden of Us is Rebolloso’s most interactive art piece to date, and seeing the community engage with it fills Joyce with a strong sense of pride.
A Garden of Us depicts the elements of love, trust, peace, patience, creativity, resilience, wisdom, integrity, gratitude, and kindness. “Love, patience, and resilience are three elements that deeply resonate with me. I see Pearl as a place of community – a place where people come together. And having my cow here emphasizes its meaning about the power of community and the pure nature of humanity.” Across Joyce’s cow are elements like people dancing around the sun, the force of the ocean, handprints, and animals.
“What I want people to take away when they interact with my artwork is to try to focus on the best part of humanity and to know that we have more in common than we think.”