Herky on Parade 2024: From Soil to Sky

​​After months of secrecy, I’m finally allowed to share the story of my Herky sculpture! Before we go any further, you can read my announcement post here. I found out about the contest a few days before the deadline, so I had to submit my design quickly! When I talked to Jon about it, he told me not to put corn on it because everyone will be putting corn on it… But I put corn on it anyway. Nearly 250 artist applications were submitted for sponsors to choose from, and mine was selected! Herky isn’t the first public sculpture I’ve painted, the first was a lighthouse for the City of Storm Lake and you can read about that project here.

I drove over to Iowa City to pick him up – the trip was over 4 hours one-way! We loaded him up into the back of our minivan and I brought Herky home.

​I knew he was going to be big, but when Jon and I got him into my (very small) in-home studio, he filled up all the empty space! As I was painting, moving from one area to another, I had to shift him and slide him around. I started with a pencil sketch of the design, which took me a full three hours to do.

Normally I add layers to a piece all over the surface, working the whole thing evenly. I tried a different approach with Herky – I would work on a section until it was complete, then move on to the next. I worked on him in three sections: from his waist down, his torso and arms, and his head. When I was ready to start adding paint, I began with his feet and legs.

Most (but not all!) of my besties are artists, and we regularly share images of art and discuss our works in progress with each other. It was extremely difficult to keep quiet about my progress (secrecy was part of the contract I signed,) especially when I would have doubts about what I had just painted. One example of this was when I painted the rocks on Herky’s feet pink. It sounded like a great idea at the time, but after I did it I second-guessed myself so hard I avoided working on his feet again for two full days!

I asked my kids what they thought of it, and they always said, “I love it!” …Which is nice to hear but ultimately unhelpful. That left only one other person I could talk to about it: Jon. Love of my life, always supportive, but in the end a non-creative normie… Jon.
“Jon, come and stare at Herky with me.”
“Jon, what do you think of this area?”
“Jon, how does my corn look?”
“Jon.”
“Jon?”
“Jon!”

It took me over 17 hours to finish what my family and I affectionately refer to as “Herky’s corn pants.”

After I asked him about the pink rocks, he replied, “I don’t know, I’m not an artist.” After I fixed the pink rocks, he said, “That looks a lot better than it did a few days ago!” (He’s a smart man.) When I I started adding the black lines, he said the outline was the perfect finishing touch. When I finished the corn pants, Jon said he wanted to keep the sculpture for our front yard. That’s how I knew I was on the right track; Jon never wants to keep my art! 😉

Next I painted the barn, followed by the blue sky on Herky’s chest, back, and arms. The sky went a bit faster, although it did require multiple coats to get the texture and look just right – especially on his shoulders and neck! It took a little over 5 hours to complete. 

Another 4 hours and I completed the night sky on his head.

All I had left to do was paint the windmill and clouds white, add the lavender shading, paint the rest of the black outlines, and finish the stars in the night sky. 

My total painting time was 30.5 hours (I kept track of each session) over the course of 34 days. I returned him to Iowa City on February 19th, 2024, to get his clear protective coat. And because it’s me, I also stopped at the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk (another shoutout to Jon for encouraging me to go!)

My Herky sculpture is titled “From Soil to Sky” and is meant to replicate a cross-section of the rural Iowan landscape I, and many other Iowans, are surrounded by every day (well, we don’t have corn in the fields year-round, but still.)

I won’t be there in Iowa City at the grand unveiling of the Herkys (there are 100 new Herky sculptures being revealed!) but I am very excited because my statue will be placed at MacBride Hall on the University of Iowa campus. This project is massive, with so many people and artists involved, and I am honored to have been chosen to participate! Someday we will take a trip to go visit my Herky, but until then my kids continue to fondly recall: “Hey, remember that Herky statue you had in your studio?” I’m not sure I’ll ever forget him, to be honest!

To learn more about the Herky on Parade sculptures, go to the website at www.HerkyonParade3.com or follow @HerkyonParade on social media.

And because a number of people have already asked, no, I did not paint or hide a toaster anywhere on the statue. Trust me, I’d let you know if I did!