“Spherical Cow”
Acrylic on Canvas. 16” x 12”. 2026
Spherical Cow is a black and white painting depicting a floating spherical cow in a field with ripples emanating through the grass below the cow. This image is a symbol of optimism due to a reference to a joke in physicist circles. The story goes that a rancher asks a physicist how they can make a cow that produces the most milk. The physicist tells the rancher that: “in order for me to calculate the maximum amount of milk a cow can make, let’s assume a spherical cow in a vacuum”. The idea here is that a sphere maximizes volume for any given size thus maximizing milk production and giving you your upper “optimistic” limit.