Crop artist depicts new stamp

According to the Lawrence Journal, rain has put Stan Herd behind about a week, but the world-famous crop artist from Lawrence will unveil another work Monday - a replica of the new postage stamp depicting a Southern Dogface butterfly.

Herd is quoted in the article as saying, “I grew up on a farm, so I’m kind of aware of the pollination of the crops, and it was intriguing to me that some of the species are having some trouble.”

The article also said Herd wanted to get involved in something that had a national scope, and he liked the idea of using his work as a platform for discussion. It has taken him about a month to create the piece, which includes marigolds, purple petunias, mulch and sand.

Herd's creation, the world's largest living stamp, is made up of only plants and other natural materials.

"We planted 3,000 marigolds, 2,000 petunias, thousands of soybean plants, and used 40,000 thousand pounds of sand, 20 cucumbers, and 150 bales of hay," said Herd in a separate article that appeared in The Epoch Times Ireland.

At the unveiling will be Chip Taylor, a professor of insect ecology at Kansas University, who will speak about the decreasing amount of wild pollinators. Richard Watkins, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service and Judy Raney, Lawrence postmaster, will discuss the issuance of a block of four “pollinator” stamps which are shown above.

To read the entire article and see a video of Herd's handiwork, click here.

For more on Stan Herd himself, click here.