Brooks Cottontail Dedication and Unveiling at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, CA

This morning at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza we unveiled one of our first and most precious Conejo Cottontails, Brooks. Brooks was designed and painted by world renowned artist, Hessam Abrishami with the late Jane Brooks in mind. Jane Brooks was a lover of the arts in our community, from curating art shows to collecting art from around the world. She did it all. Jane had this wonderful idea to bring large fiberglass sculptures of rabbits to the Conejo Valley, now 15 years later her dream is becoming a reality. We hope she is proud. 

Below you will find wonderful images from this great event. We hope to bring many more cottontails to the Conejo Valley. 

Artist Spotlight : Hessam Abrishami

 

 Hessam brought his artistic interpretive view to the cottontail project. Hessam’s Conejo Cottontail was inspired by the evolving nature of animals. 

- Modern sensibilities have made animals more human like. Pets and animals world-wide are trained to perform and humor us with tricks like circus animals. We expect them to evolve with us like fast paced machines and technology. As we anthropomorphize them, dress them, train them for our convenience we pull them with us in a more human direction that is less humane - pulling them away from their true animal nature.