BRISTOL – What started off as stencils sketched by D.J. Barry turned into murals of cows popping up in over 50 countries, the largest being 66 feet wide and 44 feet tall in Washington.
photo by Paul Fixx
One of these murals, a 16 feet by 10.5 feet black and white cow, is plastered on the side of the newly-renovated Cubbers Restaurant in Bristol.
Bristol resident D.J. Barry started his non-profit organization, Cows for a Cause, back in 2015.
Barry was driving by cows in Craftsbury one afternoon and decided to take some photos.
He turned the digital pictures into stencils of one particular cow and started traveling around Vermont.
Often dressed in a cow costume, he would sell his art at various fundraising events. Half of his art sales were donated to local charities, like ANEW Place in Burlington and Central Vermont’s Relay For Life.
Barry said an “ah-ha moment” for his organization was when one of his family members came up with the phrase, “We’re all spots on the same cow.” In 2016, he painted his first 20-foot World Cow mural in Middlesex near Rumney Elementary School, where he had attended more than 20 years before.
“The world is something that is a public domain,” Barry said. “We’re trying to unite everyone . . . People getting behind World Cow are getting behind the idea that we can all come together.”
photo courtesy D.J. Barry
Social media played a large role in growing the herd internationally. Barry sent a set of stencils to an artist in Greece. German artist JPS painted one with the hashtag, #worldcow. He later challenged an artist in Russia to paint one.
photo courtesy D.J. Barry
Barry said when the Cows for a Cause “campaign eventually turned into World Cow at the end of 2015, (they) started fundraising and making contributions to charities in other countries.”
On September 1, a new World Cow mural was unveiled back where it all started for D.J. Barry: Vermont.
The mural is on Cubbers Restaurant in Bristol, where D.J. Barry’s wife, Jen, is from, and where the two of them currently live.
Cubbers Restaurant is family-owned and has been a local landmark since 1975, with the current owners being Ben Chamberlain and Andrew Smith.
This past July, Cubbers Restaurant was renovated, or “got a facelift” as Barry said.
The inside of the restaurant was renovated during the pandemic when people weren’t eating in the dining room.
“We took out a bunch of the booths and the soda fountain and added in all these really nice, handmade wooden tables and chairs,” Juniper Smith, Andrew Smith’s daughter, said. “And then we kind of wanted the outside to match that a little bit.”
photo courtesy Lila Simmons
The outdoor renovations started last spring and ended recently.
“It was structural. There was rotten wood that needed to be replaced,” Juniper Smith said.
The changes to Cubbers took place while they were still open.
“I think ultimately, it just needed a little bit of love, and it’s looked the same way for forever,” Juniper Smith said. “It was nice to be able to give it a little remodel too and make it look bright and shiny.”
The original World Cow mural on their restaurant was taken down in the process.
“It was our favorite mural, still is actually,” Barry said.
The mural was put up in honor of Lauris Chamberlain, Ben Chamberlain’s late wife, who passed away in March 2023.
“It is a wonderful tribute to Lauris,” Chamberlain said. “She deserves all the memories she can get. She did a lot for the community and is very much missed.”
“For the community, it is a great thing,” he said later. “When the mural was taken down, people would constantly ask when it was going to be put back up.”
“Some people kind of came together to raise money for it,” Juniper Smith said. “She loved cows and peace and harmony.”
Now that the mural is back up, it “does attract people,” Juniper Smith said. “I see people standing there and taking photos with it, too.”
Barry said painting has become his outlet of relaxation, and he never imagined the World Cow reaching the scale it did.
“It feels really good,” he said. “But I also stay focused on continued growth. I want it to grow more so that the message grows further.”
“Imagine a million little world cows,” he added.
Rachel Amster reports for the Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship.
