Shippensburg University junior Margaret Dameron painted "Blanketed Bovine" to represent SU in CowParade Harrisburg. (Submitted photo) Credits: copyright 2004 CowParade Holdings Corporation.

By Tatiana Zarnowski, April 7, 2004

Cow Parade Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - Margaret Dameron enjoys melding quilt patterns with other art media.

The result of her latest effort is resting on a lawn in Harrisburg. The Shippensburg University junior completed "Blanketed Bovine," a cow sporting a brightly-colored quilt pattern, over three months.

The quilt pattern is a variation of an eight-point star and covers the cow, who is lying down, Dameron says.

The 20-year-old resident of Guilford Township in Franklin County is a history major and art minor. She was chosen to paint the cow as a result of a design competition within SU's art department.

"It's a pretty Pennsylvania Dutch pattern," Dameron says, adding she tried to pick a pattern that represented the state.

"Blanketed Bovine" now grazes on the lawn in front of Dixon University Center between Front and Second streets in Harrisburg with the cows representing all 14 universities in the State System of Higher Education.

Later the herd, part of CowParade Harrisburg 2004, will meander to the outside of the east portico of the Capitol building in Harrisburg.

The cows then will be rounded up and auctioned off at the Pennsylvania Farm Show arena Saturday June 26.

Art professor Steve Dolbin says the art department chose Dameron's design because it was both attractive and feasible. "What really struck people was that it was tied into Pennsylvania Dutch."

"But yet it has a very contemporary look because it's dark." The bovine also sports "almost hyper-realistic eyes."

To complete the cow, Dameron had to move it around the university's art building to find an empty space. She started out working during Christmas break in a classroom, and then wheeled the cow in to the art gallery while there wasn't a show there.

She finished the cow in the building's lecture hall, Dolbin says.

"It really got shuffled around," Dameron says.

Dameron spent her Christmas break painting the fiberglass cow with acrylics and on weekends into March. "There were a lot of Saturdays where I spent the entire day there."

The 2001 Chambersburg Area Senior High School graduate has done other quilt-inspired art projects during her time at SU.

She painted a log cabin quilt pattern for one project and used the grid from a seven sisters tumbling block pattern to create a female face for another. She also has sewn "a few small quilts," including a quilted poncho shaped like a diamond that she designed.

She sees more quilt patterns in her future. "I might take a rest from it, but I think it's definitely something I can see myself returning to."

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