Artwork is ‘butter’ when done together at Marshalltown Public Library
T-R PHOTOS BY LANA BRADSTREAM Butter sculptor Sarah Pratt shows attendees at the Butter Together workshop inside the Marshalltown Public Library how to make artwork out of butter. She gave everyone a single stick of butter and the necessary tools for them to create.
A Butter Together attendee scrapes off pieces from a stick of butter during the workshop held July 23 at the library. The butter is held in place with an armature.
T-R PHOTOS BY LANA BRADSTREAM Butter sculptor Sarah Pratt shows attendees at the Butter Together workshop inside the Marshalltown Public Library how to make artwork out of butter. She gave everyone a single stick of butter and the necessary tools for them to create.
A Butter Together attendee scrapes off pieces from a stick of butter during the workshop held July 23 at the library. The butter is held in place with an armature.
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Butter makes everything, including art, better.
Marshalltown residents got hands-on experience with butter sculpting on July 23 by butter artist Sarah Pratt, the renowned Iowa State Fair Butter Cow sculptor, and her daughter Grace. Gathering in the Marshalltown Public Library meeting room, the Butter Together workshop attendees received a brief history of butter sculpting from Pratt before she brought forward the ingredients for everyone to churn their own masterpieces.
"Our goal is we'll be able to demonstrate how we are 'butter' together or better when we're all together," she said. "Grace and I developed these artistic principles, if you will, that we use to guide our process. We think they also could guide our communities."
The first principle is invisible supports. For butter art – it is an armature on which the medium is sculpted. For communities, Pratt, a Toledo native, said it is the people such as volunteers, helpers and laborers who support everyone even when they are not noticed.
"Maybe someone shoveled our driveway without us noticing, or a volunteer prepared a meal that we enjoyed but didn't help with," she said. "These people are invisible supports and they are everywhere."
The next principle is discovering inspiration. Pratt said that can come from talking to people in the community, observing nature, researching history and more.
"What would be good things in our communities we want to build?" she asked. "When we put it together on the table, it becomes a community sculpture."
Creativity is a midwest value, Pratt told everyone. The people are inspired by what they have. Perhaps by a cereal box, old crayons, a scrap of paper and more.
The other principle is curiosity and a sense of inquiry. Pratt said that does not mean an idea has to be perfect, that fun is not supposed to be had or certain talents need to be possessed.
"Art is very forgiving," she said. "If something falls off or melts off, you just stick it back on. Sometimes it's through failure you discover the true inspiration of a sculpture. Failure weaves its way through my own story."
Pratt shared how she ended up being a butter artist and significant aspects of her journey were failures. At the age of 14, she had a 4-H canned beef entry which earned a placement at the Iowa State Fair. Pratt made the trip with another family who were dairy farmers with livestock entries. Since her fair entry did not require a lot of maintenance or upkeep, she offered to help the family out with cattle chores. The first task Pratt was given was washing a cow, but she used too much soap.
"[My friend] Carrie washed six cows, and I was still rinsing out my first cow," she said. "Her parents came to check on us, and I was fired. My very first cow washing, and I was fired from washing cows."
The next task Pratt was given was walking the cows to the milking parlor. Having experience walking her dog, she thought it would be easy enough.
"Cows are a little bit different than dogs," Pratt said. "We're walking until the cow steps on my foot, and I lurch one way and bumped into a stroller. I was very quickly fired from walking cows. I had only been there half a day and I had already been fired from my first two jobs."
The third task given to Pratt was to stay out of the barn and go to the butter cooler to help artist Norma "Duffy" Lyon. It was then she discovered the artform. Plus, while everyone at the state fair was outside in the heat, Pratt was inside the 45-degree butter cooler learning the process.
"I like to go out and wash the buckets because my hands were cold, and I don't think any of the other helpers liked to wash the buckets," she said. "I think that's what got me the job the next year. By not being great at taking care of dairy cows, I got a chance at something I never even dreamed of asking to do."
Pratt apprenticed with Lyon during the next 14 years. When it was time for Lyon to retire, Pratt was ready to take over in 2006.
The last principle is celebrating diversity, which is what makes communities great, Pratt said.
"If every single person in our group today all made the same skyscraper and we lined them all up, it would not make a very interesting sculpture," she said. "It's diversity which brings joy. You're going to notice someone else made something different than what you made."
Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.