Crop art is an environmental art practice using plants and seeds in the landscape to create statements, marks and/or images.Agnes Denes, Matthew Moore (artist),Dennis Oppenheim andStan Herd are practitioners of Crop art.[1][2][3][4] Some works ofLand art, andEarth art are similar in scale, and can be seen only from aerial viewpoints.
Onefolk art version of crop art is calledseed art, avisual art form created inmosaic-style, similar to the technique ofpointillism in painting, orneedlepoint textiles. Seed mosaic images are created by fixingvegetable matter, especiallyseeds, to a background. Coleen Sheehy,[5] inSeed Queen quotes a classic text on the subject:Decorating with Seed mosaics, Chipped Glass and Plant materials (first pub.1960) by Elenor Van Rennslaer[6] "...mosaics are tiles, glass, or stones set in mortar. Instead of these you can create a different kind of mosaic using such plant materials as seeds, tiny pods, and flowers" (Sheehy 49).
One prominent example of seed art is corn palaces. Originating inSioux City, Iowa in 1887, corn palaces have been a part of American culture for over a hundred years.[7] The first corn palace ever built took roughly 240 people to build and decorate, and it was decorated with imagery of gods such asMondamin,Demeter, andCeres.[7] The palace was open for observation from October 3rd, 1887, to October 8th, 1887.[7] Because of the success of the first palace, the people of Sioux City constructed 4 more palaces over the next 4 years, spanning until 1891.[7]
After the corn palaces of Sioux City came theCorn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota, which was first built for the 1892 Corn Exposition. Outer walls of the building were -and still are- covered in murals made from multi-colored ears of corn (Sheehy 24).Oscar Howe, a Native American artist from theCrow Creek Indian Reservation, designed the annual murals of the Mitchell Corn Palace from 1948 to 1971.[8] Howe's murals were designed in his own unique art style which is described as "modern Indian art".[8]
Seed art is also prominent in theMinnesota State Fair. The early editions of this fair were funded by wealthy locals who wanted to advertise their land to people from other states.[9] Seed art was used to do this because it demonstrated that there was an excess of food within the state. In more modern times, the seed mosaic portraits byLillian Colton are examples of seed art at the fair. Her seed portraits of celebrities were exhibited in the strictly defined "Crop art" category at theMinnesota State Fair beginning in 1966. Rules for entry of Crop art allow "only seeds from Minnesota-grown farm crops or cultivated garden flowers, fruits, and vegetables" with no wild plant seeds permitted. Colton continued to teach and make Crop art until her death at age 97 in 2007 (Sheehy 2).
A new generation of Crop, or Seed artists, known as the "Postmodern School of Minnesota Crop Art" (Sheehy 90) is continuing this folk tradition. Some of these artists are "Cathy Camper, Alan Carpenter, Kim Cope, Linda Koutsky, Nancy Loung, Suzy Mears, Laura Melnick, and David Steinlicht" (Sheehy 90). There is a custodial aspect and preservation ethic associated with this plant-based art form.[citation needed] Making Crop art is not only a way preserving and rejuvenating a vibrant folk craft but its practice foregrounds the need to collect, store, and value the lore and varieties of seeds.[citation needed]In Los Angeles, theTournament of Roses Parade floats employ the flowers of plants in a similar collage or mosaic style.
The term crop art might be used to describe formations known ascrop circles.[10] Crop circles first came to mass media attention during the 1980s after they were noticed in some agricultural fields in southern England (Ency Rel/Spir). Most often the images consist of very large and intricate series of rings and lines formed when standing crops, such as wheat and rye are flattened into patterns. Some attribute these designs to the marks left by landings of extraterrestrial craft because the images are usually very large, appear over a short period of time, and some do not show any visible tracks into or out of the design. These same type of figures are found all over the world; though many do not attribute their manifestation to visitations by alien beings. Crop circles are sometimes called crop formations, agroglyphs, orpictograms. Some are also created by recognized "landscape artists" for commercial purposes.[10]