Woodlands

If you’re travelling up the North Island from Wellington, Bulls is the place that you decide whether you head to the Sarjeant Gallery and the Govett-Brewster or go right on to the Auckland Art Gallery. It is a small town devoted to the pun; the Bull pun. This is the kind of place that has Arts Festibulls and spaces that are rentabull. The bull theme is everywhere and, as we turned left (don’t ask), we saw Bull’s version of Grant Wood’s American Gothic painted onto the side of a shop. They probably had to be tied down to stop them doing Constabull’s Haywain.

Poor old G Wood has had his famous painting run up hill and down dale for every imaginable cause. The latest is the recently unveiled statue God Bless America, J. Seward Johnson Jr.'s seven and a half meter high version in Chicago. If you want to catch sight of it head to Michigan Avenue just north of the river.
Images: from the top, Being Bullish about A Gothic North of Wellington. Left, the Chicago effort, right Mad Magazine (one of many Grant Wood cover versions). Bottom, the tip of the AG iceberg. The iceberg here - knock yourself out.