It all started with a drive in Craftsbury, Vermont. My wife and I drove past a farm and a few cows were standing by the road that I thought would be fun to photograph.
I was stenciling pop culture images at the time and hanging art shows in coffee shops around Vermont. I started Cows For A Cause that summer after making a design with the cow where we donated 50% to 100% of the sale to local charities. We would do small fundraisers around Vermont and we did a lot of work for a homeless shelter in Burlington called ANEW Place.
After a while I thought it would be fun to simplify the design to just black and white and have the spots be the map of the world. The result was meaningful, and it quickly became a symbol of unity. We're all spots on the same cow.
I continued painting it for Cows For A Cause and also started making woodcuts using a jigsaw. I thought it would be fun to hide them around the state in an art treasure hunt called "Lost And Found." I painted a message on the back of the artwork that read "This artwork is free under one condition: you promise to do one good thing for the world." It was a huge hit in Vermont and made national headlines on boredpanda.com.
I took a break to do more street art and traveled to NYC to paint a mural on the side of a building in Long Island City. The following summer I decided to focus on the World Cow design and made a goal to learn how to screen print. Before I started, I was commissioned to paint a barn in Middlesex, Vermont. It was my first opportunity to paint a really big World Cow! The barn was a stone throw from the Elementary School. Vermont Life Magazine photographed it and their post went viral on social media. I used over 100 poster board stencils that took weeks cutting out.
I bought a DIY screen print and had a lot of fun learning how to burn my own screens using the sun and how to screen print on clothes. I ruined every undershirt I have!
Things got out of control quick and once the word got out we we're getting slammed with orders. That's when everything made sense. WORLD COW Apparel was just the beginning.
We're now planning to open the first WORLD COW destination in my home town, Middlesex, Vermont! Half of it will be a screen printing shop and the other half will be retail.
We partnered with Vermont Clothing Company who are manufacturing wholesale and retail WORLD COW Apparel. Check them out!
In a few weeks we will have long sleeves and hoodies available. I made my first hoodie recently and donated it to the first person who sent me screen shot of donating $50 or more to the Vermont Foodbank. A few hours later my 8th grade football coach sent me a screenshot! Thanks Gerald.
We love seeing photos of people from all over the world wearing WORLD COW. Featuring the community will be our focus and we will do our part to make the world a better place.
We donate 10% of our profits from WORLD COW apparel to local charities and our goal is to increase that percentage overtime.
More info: vermontclothingcompany.com | djbarryart.com
George teaching English in Taiwan
Gerald living the dream in Vermont
Millie on vacation in the Dominican Republic
Crystal finds a woodcut at Dog River Farm in Vermont
World Cow painting giveaway on social media @worldcow
Learning geography at a young age
WORLD COW Apparel in production
World Cow on a barn in Middlesex, Vermont
Woodcut
Me
