The Man Slopping Pigs

Description: Curiously juxtaposed with the eponymous Volvo dealership and across from a retail strip, the aluminum and wooden statue was commissioned as a community landmark by Don Beyer in 1984 from his brother Richard, a sculptor in the Pacific Northwest.

Some have speculated that the work symbolized special interests feeding at the government trough, however, the Beyer family has stated that the landmark’s inspiration came from the Beyers’ childhood in nearby McLean on Springhill Farm, where their mother Clara kept pigs. From the tip of each hog snout angling for food to the whimsical, delicate pig tails, the installation honors the family’s heritage through the humble and lower cost material, aluminum.  

Ironically, just a few years after commissioning the sculpture, Don Beyer entered politics. Since 1990, he has served in multiple positions from Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, to U.S. Ambassador and Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2014. 

Artist Richard Beyer graduated from Fairfax High School and later earned his BA from Columbia University. He began work on his PhD in Washington State until his passion for woodworking lured him to pursue sculpting as a profession instead. Beyer found inspiration in indigenous totem poles and carved cedar before setting up a foundry in his Seattle area studio where he created many figurative sculptures for communities in Oregon and Washington. 

As Richard Beyer once said, "Public sculpture properly belongs to the people and should be meaningful to them. Sculpture should be in every nook and cranny where people live, to tell them about themselves." The Man Slopping Pigs invites visitors to look, touch and walk around the figures and envision when farms and horses outnumbered automobiles in Northern Virginia.

Artist: Richard Beyer

Year: 1984

Medium: Sculpture

Location: 99 Gordon Rd

Ownership: Privately Owned

GPS: 38.893947 | -77.189485