People flying in and out of Regina for the 2005 Canada Summer Games have experienced a visual feast as through two large pieces of crop art near the airport.
The crop creations have been labours of love for Tisdale, Sask., born artist Laura Hale, herself a former Canada Games competitor.
“I like that it’s an unexpected encounter with art. You look out your window and it’s such a nice welcome and good-bye.”
The crop art has two images. One is the stylized Canada Games logo that was hewn from a 20 acre patch of durum.
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The second is an image entitled The RM of Sherwood, conceived by Hale, where 10 acres were extracted from a 20-acre crop of lentils.
Although Hale has been in Regina since last November as artist-in-residence with the games, this project began in the spring, after the crops were planted.
She met with the Regina airport authority to determine suitable spots on the flight path where planes would be low enough to see the artwork from the sky, and then set out to contact farmers who might be interested in renting small parcels of land to her.
The farmers were on-board right away. Doug Harle owns the durum, while Kevin Eberle owns the lentil field where the crop art is situated, both approximately five kilometres from the edge of the runway.
Harle praised Hale’s perseverance and said it was a unique experience to be involved with the project.
He said the farmers were compensated for their lost crop and he didn’t mind letting Hale manipulate his wheat.
“Some people make bread with it; some make art. I think the province can afford the art, from a cultural perspective,” he said on his cellphone as he drove his combine to a desiccated lentil field to take his first sample of the harvest on Aug. 10.
Once Hale had the land, she hired a surveying company, which used mobile global positioning system technology to choose the orientation of the designs and to position hundreds of stakes to outline each image. All points were numbered which corresponded to a paper copy of the design, so Laura and her helpers didn’t get lost. “We couldn’t make a mistake, ever.”
Then, in the durum field, Hale mowed down the crop around the logo and cultivated and rototilled it, with the help of Harle and his family and a tractor donated by Southey Farm Supply of Southey, Sask. It was the first time Hale had ever operated a farm implement.
For her design among the lentils, Hale did the opposite, mowing and tilling the parts that comprised the image, trying not to leave any tracks in the crop around it.
Hale said the lentils were difficult to work with because they were so fragile and low to the ground, whereas the wheat was waist high when she arrived.
The durum project took 70-80 hours with Hale and two assistants working on it. Hale did the lentil design solo, taking one week to complete it.
Harle and his family had a chance to view Hale’s work from the air when the Regina Flying Club gave rides at a party in celebration of the completion of the artwork. He was impressed by what he saw.
“I was amazed at the detail. It was very pleasurable … how they created something like that on such a large scale.”
While there are inherent risks associated with creating any piece of art, this one was unique for Hale.
“We could get a big hailstorm right before the games and the artwork could be gone. It’s just believing in yourself and having faith that everything will work out,” she said.
“I was quite relieved when I went flying for the first time to actually see it when I was done. Relieved and pleased and overwhelmed. It was so beautiful.”
Hale’s art is temporary, but that is part of the attraction.
“It’s a living art form, which excites me. I like working with the earth.”
