This is one of many J. Does in the Omaha area. In 2001, many of these sculptures appeared around town. All were in the same basic shape, but decorated by different artists. They were on display around the city for several months. Omaha has quite a large, varied arts/music scene for its size. Many of the J. Does were purchased by their sponsors and are still on display in different places, but the rest were auctioned off as a fund raiser, with a part of the proceeds going to the City of Omaha Public Arts Commission. If you would like to see more of these works of art, (not photographed by me), you can find a link here. There was a great variety of themes among the statues. Some of my favorites were the Immigrant, Produce-R-Doe, The Sky's the Limit, As Young as You Feel, and Heart and Soul. Here is one statue that has the J. Doe Statement displayed on the bottom. It was a great project, that really showed off the artistic and creative talents we have here in Omaha. I read somewhere that a similar project will be displayed this year, so I will be keeping my camera ready to show them off.
3 comments:
interesting..i guess the idea is similar to "cow parade"
I think this whole thing was started in Zurich in 1998 when they had their famous cow parade event. This has been followed, by benches and teddy bears. Each event has a standard model that is decorated by artists, and normally sponsored by a retailer. I think it was the Swiss artist who inspired it that was repsonsible for exporting the cow parade to NYC etc
J. Doe..I say no. There are cows and pigs but Omaha is seeking an identity and some effort has gone into that with the statuary being installed downtown, Buffalo! Why not switch to Buffalo as a project to replace the J. Does. It would be unique to Omaha and continue the bronze theme to other parts of the city, and don't forget there could be a collectible market for the buffalo and as a logo.
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