Inside Iowa State

April 29, 2005

Cuddly bunny or wascally wabbit?

Three cast-bronze rabbit sculptures were added to the Stafford Arboretum in the southwest corner of Reiman Gardens earlier this month. The sculptures, purchased through the Art in State Buildings program, were created by Omaha artist Deborah Masuoka. The relevance of rabbits in the garden is based on the paradoxical relationship between what the rabbit has generally symbolized -- soft, innocent creature -- and the reality of what it is -- ravenous garden predator capable of doing a lot of damage. Each rabbit head weighs about 150 pounds and is painted in stone-like colors, including cobalt blue, green, rust, burnt orange and yellow. Photo by Bob Elbert.