By DEB GRUVER

Staff writer

Larry Andres lent out some unusual art supplies recently.

He gave crop artist Stan Herd and his team use of about half an acre near Old Mill and 190th Rds. to create a likeness of Picasso’s “Goat Skull on the Table.”

“It was very interesting,” Andres said.

The project honored Peabody resident Marilyn Jones, and a get-together when the work was wrapped up featured music and goats at Susan Mayo’s home. Mayo is co-executive director of Flint Hills Counterpoint and a musician.

“They sculpted wheat, planted soybeans, and added different types of mulch, sand, and organic matter to create the work,” Mayo, who lives next to Andres, said.

The project came about organically, Andres said.

“Stan or somebody who worked for him was asking at a local restaurant whether anyone had some wheat to work on,” Andres said. “Someone gave them my name. He knew Susan Mayo, and I had some wheat next to her.”

Herd, who painted a mural at Sunflower Theatre in Peabody, and his team worked on the field off-and-on for about three weeks.

The art, however, already is gone.

“I’ve planted over it already,” Andres said. “It was there probably a week or two.”

The only way to see it was from above. Herd’s team used a drone to take images of the field, which were shown at the get-together.

“From the ground, it just looked like a bunch of nonsense, but it’s amazing when you see it from up high,” Andres said. “It was interesting to watch him work on it.”

The team needed water to get soybeans to grow, so Andres hauled some on a four-wheeler.

He’d volunteer some of his land again, he said.

“I didn’t get anything out of it, but it was neat,” Andres said. “You’ve got to have an imagination.”