Indiana Barn Roof Art
Thursday, 17th September 2009 by Alex Turnbull
In Indiana, the local farmers have an apparently long tradition of decorating the roofs of their barns with interesting pictures. I haven't been able to find much information on the historical reasons why they do this, but the steeply angled roofs mean that the images are pretty clearly visible from ground level - so presumably they make for fairly good advertising hoardings.
There are tons of these decorated roofs all over the Midwestern United States, but today we'll be limiting ourselves to ones found in Indiana, because otherwise we'd be here forever.
Based purely on the number of roofs that depict cows, I'm going to guess that there are a lot of dairy farmers in Indiana. They're also pretty big on pigs too.
The number of properties featuring horses is pretty impressive, but there are probably even more depictions of a more modern type of workhorse, the tractor.
You know, I think I'm starting to see some common themes here. Is anyone else getting a farmyard vibe? Oh look, another tractor. Except this time, it says "MAKIN BACON"! Cool.
People do seem to have eventually started to get slightly more adventurous however, as these two roofs demonstrate through their use of "scenery".
Of course there are occasional properties where the owners have promoted some different species, such as ducks, chickens, and deer.
Actually that's not all, mustn't forget the multi-coloured llamas.
It seems that some people have recognised that there isn't much original work happening in the Indiana roof-art scene, which may explain this excellent bit of Disney copyright infringement.
Presumably this next one was also created in the name of art – unless they really do breed Unicorns round these parts?
For more roof art than you could possibly imagine, check out Ohio Barns.com. Thanks to Adriano and Felippo.
Previously on Google Sightseeing: Happy Magic Rainbow Unicorn.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Now this reminds me of the Welsh farmer who got so fed up with low-flying RAF jets screaming over his property that he painted “P*SS OFF BIGGLES” on his barn roof: See http://www.targeta.co.uk/wheretogo.htm for a photo. (Some American pilots may not have got the reference, as one apparently asked a British colleague, “What’s a biggle?” 🙂
I’ve managed to track down the farm, but sadly no trace of the message is visible: View Placemark
Well, these are certainly of more artistic merit than last years purile artwork post!
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/2007/08/24/more-puerile-roof-art/
Terrifyingly, that was actually 2 years ago! Times files…
Good Noon!