Literary hippos
Anyone who has watched “The Wizard of Oz” may recall whimsical dialog between Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion in which she asks if he were king of the forest, how he would react to a hippopotamus. “Why, I’d thrash him from top to bottomus,” the lion replies. Hippos figure in literary quotations from authors Lewis Carroll, Carl Sandburg, T.S. Eliot and Bertrand Russell, just to name a few. Kathy Pienkowski, circulation manager of Citizens Library, Washington, poses with a pair of hippos just south of the circulation desk. A “name the hippos” contest was suggested in 2017 when the art project took shape as part of the Rural Arts Collaborative, a consortium founded with funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. The collaborative places teaching artists in rural schools in Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and partners with teachers and students to create public art. The hippos were conceptualized and designed by artist James Simon and McGuffey High School students. But, three years later, Pienkowski said everyone simply refers to them as Mama and Baby.