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USA
Southwest
Victoria Herberta
4208 Crawford Street
Houston, TX
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Houston, TX
Pigdom - Victoria Herberta
Folk Art Site
Self-taught Artist, Signage
Site Status: gone
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Information:
Behind the Southmore Post Office, in the shadow of US 59, a bright purple bungalow sports road signs and highway markers that read "Hog Zone Ahead," "No Porking," "Pignic Area," and "Hoggywood and Swine."
A "pigup" truck stands in the driveway. The mailbox is shaped like a pig. The house is owner Victoria Herberta's "shrine to swine" and her own "hog heaven."
Victoria has been fascinated by pigs ever since she first saw them in picture books as a child. In 1983, she finally beheld a real pig at a farm near San Marcos, and in 1984 brought "Priscilla" home from San Marcos to live with her. "I adore pigs," says Victoria. "Pigs are intelligent, loving, and sensitive. Yet they are the underdogs of the world."
Victoria taught Priscilla to swim. This talent brought them both fame in the summer of 1984 when Priscilla rescued an 11 year-old boy from drowning in Lake Somerville. In time, Priscilla retired to the farm in San Marcos and was succeeded by "Priscilla II" and then "Jerome."
In 1988, a neighbor complained to the city health department about Jerome, and Victoria was forced to send him away to San Marcos. These days, her spirits dampened by the experience, she contents herself with pig-related decorative projects around her house. She has even turned lawn chairs into cheerful pigs.
"Anything that is related to pigs and displayable—bring it on!" she says.
"I'd like to see pigs painted all over the outside of the house, running pigs, sitting pigs, smiling pigs. All over the driveway, too. I'd like a giant concrete pig in the yard. Remember, this is a 'shrine to swine,' " she says.
The information presented here is from "Whimsical Wonders and Fanciful Forms: Folk Art Houses of Houston" by Elizabeth Haywood with photos by Stephan Mayers; Texas Highways Magazine, May 1993
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Bibliography:
"Whimsical Wonders and Fanciful Forms: Folk Art Houses of Houston" by Elizabeth Haywood with photos by Stephan Mayers; Texas Highways Magazine, May 1993.
"20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art" by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.
"Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments" by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.
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Driving Directions:
Contact The Orange Show Foundation, a preservation and education organization in Houston, for tour information on folk art environments in the area.
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Road rules:
Please remember to always be respectful of private property, use common courtesy and treat people with kindness. If the location is private, never enter without the owner’s permission.
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Credit: |
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Credit: |
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All images are property of the artists who created them.
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