Crop art offers big Pullman welcome
Artist returns to the Palouse for third year to create large crop mural
By Anthony Kuipers Moscow Pullman Daily News 8/7/2021
For the third consecutive year, a group of people worked diligently to create an art project welcoming back Washington State University students to Pullman in a way befitting the Palouse.
Wind and heat did not stop crop artist Stan Herd and his team from completing the latest crop mural on the hillside of Jack Fulfs' farmland overlooking the intersection of U.S. Highway 195 and State Route 270 this week.
They were only interrupted by the vehicles that honked their horns in excitement when passing.
“We get honks all day long,” Herd said. “The only thing sore on my body is my arm from waving.”
This year’s design, when completed today, will say “Welcome Home” with the Cougar logo and BECU’s logo included. It is 360 feet tall and 220 feet wide. It took a week to complete.
Herd once again partnered with Fulfs and BECU, a credit union sponsoring the project, to create a mural that immediately catches the eye of anyone leaving or entering northwest Pullman. Five Washington State University students volunteered on the project.
The 70-year-old Kansas man has been creating crop art all over the world for 48 years and said he has never worked with the same partners three times until now. In that time, he has grown fond of the Palouse.
“The first year we came up, we fell in love with Pullman and this incredible terrain and the people,” he said.
His team used compost, garbanzo beans, pinto beans and red mulch to complete the design, which he created with the help of DNA Seattle, an advertisement agency based in Seattle.
Though his future plans still include taking his talents across the world, he is open to returning to Pullman.
“I’d love to come back,” he said.
Kyra Roesle, also from Kansas, has been working with Herd for six years.
She said the key to making crop art is being able to envision the artwork three ways: on paper, from the ground level and from the sky.
She calls it “triangulating between the three eyes.”
“If you can triangulate a location off of that, of those three images together, you can build anything,” she said. “It’s just paint by numbers. Just really, really, really, big.”
Roesle said she enjoys the reactions the mural draws from people, especially from the tight-knit Pullman community.
“It’s really special here in particular because Cougar country people are a family,” she said.
