In 1867, Caroline Shawk Brooks and her husband, Samuel, had a farm in Arkansas. Life on the farm was not easy. From sunrise to sunset, Caroline and Samuel milked cows, gardened, and picked cotton. This left Caroline no time for her dream of becoming an artist.
Time was not the only problem. Money was a worry too. The cotton crops were failing. What could Caroline and Samuel do?
Caroline decided to make butter (黄油) from their cows'milk and sell it at market. But other farms also made and sold butter. How would Caroline set her butter apart from the rest? This is where Caroline's artistic talent came in. To draw attention to her butter, she began making small butter sculptures (雕塑). She used many different tools, such as butter paddles (搅拌器的浆叶), broom straws, and tree sticks. She also put the butter in a shallow tin pan, which sat in a larger tin pan filled with ice to stop the butter sculpture from melting.
Caroline's butter sculptures were a hit. Before long, she was displaying them at fairs and exhibitions. One of her largest butter sculptures was a life-size statue called A Study in Butter. It was transported all the way to Paris for the 1878 world's fair.
Caroline also made sculptures using marble (大理石). She eventually opened a studio in New York City where she created many marble sculptures, some of which were shown at the 1893 world's fair in Chicago.
But Caroline never stopped making butter art. She considered butter a superior material to work with. At the 1893 fair, she also displayed her butter techniques with a sculpture of Christopher Columbus.
Caroline Shawk Brooks died in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1913. She is remembered as the first known American butter sculptor.
