Stan Herd

After establishing his career in oil and watercolor painting, Stan Herd (www.stanherdart.com) returned to his agricultural roots in 1976 pioneering an art form called crop art. This method of artistic expression involves the manipulation of plants, soil, and rock to create masterpieces on such a grand scale that they must be viewed from an airplane, hilltop, or a similarly high vantage point. In addition to its simple yet powerful beauty, crop art also provides a platform for discussing the roles of art combined with agriculture and the demands on our natural resources. Born in 1950 in the small farming community of Protection, Kansas, Herd cultivated his talent from childhood, eventually landing an art scholarship from Wichita State University in 1969. Along with the attention he's received for his crop art, the artist is recognized for his mural works located throughout the United States. Herd's earthwork projects have been created in locations in California, England, New York, Cuba, and Australia His recent high-profile works include a 10-acre rendition of Leonardo Da Vinci's Glider sketch, created directly under the flight path of Sir Richard Branson's GlobalFlyer aircraft that orbited the earth, piloted by adventurer Steve Fossett. Stan has created more than a dozen earthworks which include portraits of Native Americans, graphic still lifes, and "Countryside," produced on New York's Manhattan Island. The artist's permanent works include Prairiehenge, a half-acre homage to the Osage Nation and tallgrass prairie, created on broadcaster Bill Kurtis' Red Buffalo Ranch; a portrait of world famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart in Atchison, Kansas; and the Medicine Wheel, situated on the grounds of Haskell Indian Nations University. Stan's work has been featured on CBS's Sunday Morning, National Public Radio's All Things Considered and What Do You Think?, Dateline NBC, Late Night with David Letterman, as well as in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian Magazine, New York Times, The New Look of Paris, and The London Telegraph. In 1998, he produced a one acre-large wheat field portrait titled Liberty on the Land commissioned for the cover of U.S. News and World Report. Last year, he was commissioned by Neiman Marcus to create an original work for its 2003 Christmas Catalogue. Stan is also involved in moving images, having worked on feature film director Kevin Willmott's Ninth Street and the upcoming Bunker Hill, starring James McDaniel (NYPD Blue) and Saeed Jaffrey (Gandhi), a special for The History Channel and numerous short form productions. Herd's book, Crop Art and Other Earthworks, (Henry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1994) details his artistic journey through stunning pictures and explores the regular theme of creating "art" versus the reality of needing commercial "contracts" to survive. In order to create works "from the heart," such as the four acre Medicine Wheel done in collaboration with Haskell Indian Nations University, Stan has subsidized his art with commercial earthwork ventures such as the creation of the Absolut Landmark, Northwest Airlines logo, a piece to promote Garth Brooks' Fresh Horses album, a 2001 logo for Monster.com, and a covert piece to promote the 2002 Mel Gibson film Signs.