Veryl Goodnight, NSS - Country Living

This sculpture began when Texas-based Blue Bell Creamery commissioned Veryl Goodnight to create a sculpture from their logo of a little girl leading a Jersey cow. Though the logo is well-known across Texas, the imagery could be of rural ancestors from across the United States.

Goodnight researched Jersey cattle at the Mountain Shadows Dairy in Litchfield Park, AZ. The owner educated the artist in Jersey cattle, and then they selected an ideal cow for her to measure, photograph, and video record. Goodnight also used the cow as a live model in several occasions.

The little country girl in the piece was modeled after Chessie Kimble of Cortez, Colorado; Goodnight used videotape to study the movements of both Chessie and the cow to ensure the sculpture was true to life from any angle. (You can also see Chessie and the cow in another of Goodnight's pieces, Daydreaming.)

Country Living is featured in the artist's book, No Turning Back: The Art of Veryl Goodnight.