Got Milk? Got Warhol.

 

8 x 16", acrylic on cradle aluminium panel

Painting #314, 2026, black wooden floater frame

-SOLD

When I spotted this vintage 9 oz milk bottle at Recollection in Salisbury, NB, I knew right away that it was a keeper. I can only vaguely recall glass milk bottles in our family fridge growing up. By the late 1960s, the Maritime provinces started introducing bagged milk. When Canada adopted the metric system in 1970, dairies transitioned from imperial quarts to metric measurements, as plastic bags were far cheaper than retooling glass lines.  

When conceiving this piece, I wanted to play on the famous "Got Milk?" marketing campaign that dominated pop culture from 1993 to 2014. During those twenty years, more than 300 celebrities and public figures were photographed sporting a white milk moustache. Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz captured more than 180 of these ads. A diverse mix of subjects ranging from Taylor Swift to Lisa and Bart Simpson got their "stache on"! 

In 2015, DesignCrowd launch an invite to its designers 

to reimagine stars from the past, while using Photoshop to 

transform them into modern day advertisements. 

 Since Warhol died in 1987, he ended up among the most popular

of the submitted entries.

To bring my "Got Warhol" concept to life, I turned to Andy Warhol's classic cow imagery. Warhol created his Cow series in 1966 using a photograph of a Jersey cow from an agricultural magazine, selected by gallery assistant Gerard Malanga. At the suggestion of his art dealer Ivan Karp, it was printed as wallpaper rather than standard canvas art. Today, a dozen major museums, including the MoMA and the Andy Warhol Museum, feature it in their permanent collections.

Tate Modern, London - May 2010

Over a span of ten years, Warhol produced four official color schemes for the Cow series to alter the look of specific gallery venues. To promote his first Paris exhibition in 1971 at Le Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, individual sheets of a new colorway—orange-red cows on an acid green background—were printed on a heavy wove paper stock instead of thin wallpaper rolls. Because of this durable paper, these exhibition posters became highly sought after by collectors for framing. I really liked this striking color combination for my background, though I did need to add a fine white outline around the lettering on the bottle so the letters wouldn't disappear against the red background.

The milk bottle rests on a Marimekko paper napkin featuring the classic poppy pattern called Unikko. Marimekko is a Finnish design house founded in Helsinki in 1951, known for its bold graphic prints and bright colors. When Maija Isola created the Unikko floral motif in 1964, it became the visual trademark of the company. The brand gained significant recognition when Jacqueline Kennedy purchased seven of their simple cotton dresses during her husband’s 1960 presidential campaign.

This past spring, Suzanne and I vacationed in four Scandinavian and Baltic countries, spending four memorable days in Helsinki, Finland. We visited two Marimekko stores, toured several art museums, sampled local dishes like their delicious salmon soup, and even tried a traditional sauna followed by a cold plunge in the Baltic Sea.

Marimekko Flagship Store in central Helsinki,

right next to the Esplanadi Park, May 2026

This painting is currently on view in a two-person show with Jon Wilkinson at the Fog Forest Gallery, entitled:

"Still Lives, Silent Places"

October 16 – November 6, 2026 

• Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2026, from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
• Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment.

-SOLD
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
fogforestgallery.ca