Porkopolis

Tribute & Acclaim

pg 2 of 3

The last charge ~ he leads a dirty life.
Here I could shelter him
With noble and right-reverend precedents,
And show by sanction of authority
That 'tis a very honorable thing
To thrive by dirty ways. But let me rest
On better ground the unanswerable defense
The pig is philosopher who knows
No prejudice. Dirt? Jacob, what is dirt?

Robert Southey (1774-1843)
British poet and author. "The Pig" (1799).

As anyone knows who has ever had anything to do with pig-keeping, pigs are clever animals. They are not only intelligent, they are extremely adaptable and highly capable of affection for human beings and even of devotion.

Edward S. Hyams (1910-1975)
English broadcaster, journalist, novelist, poet, translator, wine expert and gardener. Animals in the Service of Man (1972).

Nature has played some weird tricks on the pig. It has taken a creature with a brain thought to be inferior only to primates, endowed it with copious amounts of lard, and made it walk on the animal equivalent of high heels.

Steven Hall
U.S. author.

I have a friendly feeling toward pigs generally, and consider them the most intelligent of beasts... I like his disposition and attitude towards all creatures, especially man... He views us through a totally different, a sort of democratic, standpoint as fellow citizens and brothers, and takes it for granted, or grunted, that we understand his language. And without servility or insolence he has a natural, pleasant, camerados-all or hail-fellow-well-met air with us.

W.H. Hudson (1841-1922)
British naturalist and author. The Book of the Naturalist (1919).

I like pigs and I honestly believe that most pigs like me... Against all who besmirch them, I stand ready to speak in their defense even on the floor of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress.

Fred Schwengel (1907-1993)
Republican Congressman from Iowa (1954-1964 and 1966-1973).

Then the pigs are a race unjustly calumniated. Pig has, it seems, not been wanting to man, but man to pig. We do not allow him the time for his education, we kill him at a year old.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
British poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer and critic of English literature. Life of Johnson by James Boswell, Johnson's biographer (1791).

The fact is, compared to pigs, we humans are unforgivably slow to learn from pragmatic experience.

Karl Schwenke
U.S. author. In A Pig's Eye (1985).

Every pig is different... And I swear they smile at you.

Nancy Everman
Member of the Iowa Pork Producer's Association.

The natural term of a pigs life is little known, and the reason is plain — because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep that turbulent animal to the full extent of its time: however, my neighbor, a man of substance, who had no occasion to study every little advantage to a nicety, kept an half-bred Bantam sow... to the seventeenth year...

From long experience in the world this female had grown very sagacious and artful: when she found occasion to converse with a boar she used to open all the intervening gates, and march, by herself up to a distant farm where one was kept; and when her purpose was served would return by the same means.

Reverend Gilbert White (1720-1793)
British naturalist and ornithologist. The Natural History of Selborne (1789).

Evolving from an antebellum economic necessity, dietary mainstay, and component in agrarian cultural rituals to a modern symbol, the hog has demonstrated remarkable adaptability.

S. Jonathan Bass
"How 'bout a Hand for the Hog: The Enduring Nature of the Swine as a Cultural Symbol in the South" in Southern Cultures, Volume 1, No.3, Spring 1995.

The essence of the 'Hog Series' can be related to the series of works Velazquez created depicting the jesters and dwarves of King Phillip IV's court. Velazquez portrayed these subjects as equals to their master. I have tried to portray hogs with dignity and respect, while at the same time revealing and sharing some of my past personal experiences.

Tarleton Blackwell (b. 1956)
The artist's statement to accompany his Asheville Art Museum exhibition in 1992.

[The pigs in Britain] live abroad in the woods and are remarkable for their height, strength and swiftness — indeed, it is as dangerous to approach them as the wolf.

Strabo (63? BC-24? AD)
Greek geographer, historian and philosopher. Geographica (c. 19 AD).