Los Osos/Baywood Park has the world’s only “cow-bear”, a delightfully whimsical piece of public art residing near the pier in Baywood Park.
Photo by Edward Gelb
Meet Udderly Osa – Cow-Bear!
It all began in 1998, when a Zurich sculptor made 812 fiberglass, life-size cows for local artists to decorate. The cows were placed all around the city, and the CowParade attracted 1.5 million tourists to Zurich that year.
The CowParade is now the largest and most successful public art event in the world. It’s been held in 80+ countries since 1999 including Paris, Hong Kong, Athens, Moscow, Milan, London, New York, Cannes, Rio, Rome and beyond, bringing smiles to more than 300 million people worldwide. Each CowParade shares a few common elements – community involvement, sponsors, artists, charities, beautiful cows, increased tourism, notoriety and downright silliness.
How'd this come about?
In 2016-17 San Luis Obispo County hosted the International CowParade. Here in Los Osos two groups were active in sponsoring a cow.
Visit Los Osos•Baywood Park, a small County Business Improvement District supporting visitors to our area paid to sponsor the cow. But unless the cow, now cow-bear could be purchased she would go to auction in the spring and Los Osos would lose her.
Visit Los Osos and a member of Celebrate Los Osos worked with two local artists, Canadian born David and Kyle Doust. The artists were challenged to take the history of the area and create a cow that represented the dairy industry, the legend of “herds” of grizzly bears, the love of water sports, the mountains, the monarch butterflies and the playfulness of our beaches and turn those elements into a cow entry for the parade, in short order with a small budget. Our entry into the CowParade was finished and named Udderly Osa, Cow Bear.
Yes, we admit, “Udderly Osa” is a bit wiggy. But she is the kind of public art you would expect to find in off the beaten path in some delightfully small town with a very BIG personality. Only a town like Los Osos would raise the money to buy her so she could remain in her home pastures. The money all went to charity in San Luis Obispo County.
Why keep her?
"Udderly Osa" was fast becoming the most visited sight in Los Osos. Since she was installed in Baywood she had grown in popularity with visitors, locals and school age kids who grew to love her. She caused controversy. Was she art? Yes! No! Yes! Did it matter? What she is, is she characterizes the kind of unique zaniness our community enjoys.
That’s when Celebrate Los Osos, a small local non-profit organized a GO-FUND-ME campaign to raise $5500. In a short time 95 people contributed and raised the money to buy her to keep her from being auctioned off and sent away to a strip mall in Southern California or a car lot in San Jose or to a feed lot in Texas.
And if you’re wondering “why cows?”—you’re not alone. CowParade Holdings Corporation, the official owner of the CowParade brand, states on their website: “The cow represents different things to different people around the world but the common feeling is one of affection. There is something magical about the cow that transcends throughout the world. She simply makes everyone smile.”
Fun Facts:
Over 250 million people around the world have seen one our famous cows.
Over $30 million have been raised through worldwide charitable organizations through the auction of the cows, which take place at the conclusion of each event.
Over 10,000 artists worldwide have participated in CowParade – professional and amateur, famous and emerging, young and old.
Over 5,000 cows have been created!
Over the years Udderly Osa developed “medical” problems. Her fiberglass developed blisters. Celebrate Los Osos volunteers removed her to a local barn and sanded them down to her raw fiberglass and repainted her, and returned her to her Baywood pasture where she peacefully overlooked the bay for several years.
But the rains came and last year she developed severe blisters again. Over the course of months volunteers removed her fiberglass blisters by grinding them down and recoating her with fiberglass resin. Sanding (and sanding and more sanding) her smooth and repainting her. John Biven, a retired art teacher and local artists volunteered to complete the detailed hand-painting of her fur coat and restored her to her original beauty!
Dave Doust just completed her crown of monarch butterflies and added her new blue glasses as she chills on her blue paddleboard.
When you see her, say “moo-llo!”
We thank David and Kyle Doust for their talent and imagination!
We thank all the people who contributed to keeping the Lovely Udderly Osa home.
David and Kyle Doust, the creators of Udderly Osa:
David Doust studied at University of Toronto Art Education degree program with studio courses at Sheridan College. He creates sculptures and water features using cultured stone and glass. He is noted for incorporating recycled high grade copper from decommissioned ICB missiles into all his sculptures making the most dangerous into the safest most peaceful thing in your home. His impressive blue butterfly/ hand sculpture resides next to the library in Arroyo Grande. See more at Dave_doust @instagram and http://www.davedoust.com
Kvle Doust is a professional special prosthetic effects artist living and working in Toronto. He was trained in California, and he returned to Toronto after completing his education and interning in Hollywood. He gained experience in television, theater, and film in Los Angeles as a professional makeup effects artist.
You can see his work on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Titans, and The Boys among many other shows. See more at: https://www.instagram.com/kyledoustmufx/
Aside: Recently Kyle was working in his studio in Toronto. A UPS delivery person stopped by with a package and saw “bloody body parts” strewn all over the floor. He fled and called law enforcement who arrived with weapons drawn assuming the worst. Kyle invited them inside and gave them a tour of his studio and introduced them to the process of how he made the prosthetic effects and how he made them look so real. All’s well that ends well.
Cow Bear Fundraiser
“Udderly Osos” is fast becoming one of the most visited sights in Los Osos/Baywood Park. Since she was installed in Baywood she has grown in popularity with visitors, locals, and school-age kids who love her. She characterizes the kind of unique zaniness our community enjoys.
Our cow-bear, “Udderly Osos” was part of Cow-Parade SLO which showcased 101 (for Highway 101) life-size, 120-pound, fiberglass works of art.
Over 75 cities and 200 million people worldwide participated in CowParade, the world’s largest public art exhibit.
Visit Los Osos•Baywood Park, a small local Business Improvement District group, sponsored our cow for $7000, and selected local artists Dave and Kyle Doust to transform her into the world’s only cow-bear. Part of the money paid went to ArtsObispo, a non-profit group advancing the arts in SLO County; part to the international group and part to the artists who spent the summer creating her.
But, initially, we only had her for a short while after which she was scheduled to go to auction where she would be sold to the highest bidder and moved to…well, somewhere else!
Celebrate Los Osos thought: What community or winery or shopping center or car dealership has a historical reason to own a wiggy piece of public art that includes dairy farming, ranching, grizzly bears, monarch butterflies, Golden poppies and stands on a paddle-board next to the bay? No one but us!
Celebrate Los Osos launched a campaign to raise enough money to keep her home — permanently. Keeping our cow-bear in Los Osos is just the kind of project our community thrives on.
To keep her, we had to raise $5,500. The CowParade organizers required $3,500 to prevent her from going to auction. This money would go to charity. The balance would be held for future maintenance expenses and repair costs.
The funds needed to be raised on or before March 15, 2017. And we did it!
The entire $5,500 to keep the Cow-Bear in Los Osos/Baywood Park was raised by March 8, 2017.
The money raised went to over 40 local charities including Peoples’ Self Help Housing, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Woods Humane Society, Grizzly Academy, Foodbank Coalition, SLO Land Conservancy, and Arts Obispo.
Donations came from a GoFundMe campaign, as well as sent directly to Celebrate Los Osos or made in donation jars at Los Osos Valley Nursery and Volumes of Pleasure Bookshop.
After the International CowparadeSLO was over, the Cow-Bear could be found for a time in various places around town.
Special thanks to Visit Los Osos Baywood Park, Los Osos Baywood Park Chamber of Commerce, Los Osos Valley Nursery, Volumes of Pleasure Bookshop, CowBear fabricators David and Kyle Doust, and the over 176 people who contributed.
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