Tuesday, March 21, 2006

The Man Behind The Cow...Mind Your Step


Having unveiled our smiling 2006 Kansas City Irish Fest cow during the St. Patrick’s Day parade, we now (drum roll, please) unveil this year’s cow artist. By which I mean the artist who painted the cow. Not that he’s a cow. Because he’s not. He’s actually a very nice guy and a very talented artist. And he looks sort of like this self portrait.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Mike Esberg.

“I was born and raised in Michiana, that's the area between Michigan and Indiana, in the town of Elkhart, IN. My parents and relatives kept me busy and quiet by supplying me with plenty of paper and pencils to draw with. By the time I was in high school in 1977, I was doing dog portraits and painting murals on vans, (Elkhart is the R.V. capitol of the world). I graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio and then it was off to Kansas City to work for Hallmark Cards. I like to work from my imagination with a lot of disregard for the way things really look. For over 20 years I have drawing and painting mostly things that can be printed on greeting cards. Every once in awhile I get to draw and paint other things, like happy Irish cows.”

And we're happy to continue the tradition of giving Mike paint to keep him busy and quiet. Thanks, Mike.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

is he really that cute!

Danny Regan said...

Even cuter. In real life, he's not nearly so jaundiced.