Artist Gary L Hightshoe | Hay There, Farm Fresh White Coffee Mug

from $12.50
Before farm-fresh food could reach your table, it had to survive an Iowa winter. That meant hay — hundreds of rectangular bales stored in barn lofts to feed the cattle through the long cold months when the pastures went quiet. The hay elevator, a motorized conveyor that lifted bales from wagon to loft automatically, was one of the quiet revolutions that made it all possible. More hay stored efficiently meant healthier livestock through winter. Healthier livestock meant better milk, better meat, better eggs come spring. Farm-fresh wasn't a marketing term — it was the result of an entire family's year-round labor, supported by tools like this one. Gary L Hightshoe captured this barn and elevator south of Ames in 1972, in his earliest years at Iowa State — a young professor already chasing the stories written into the landscape. Good food has a long story. This is part of it. Gary L. Hightshoe is an Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture at Iowa State University, where he taught plant materials, planting design, and landscape resource management for more than 47 years. Over the course of nearly half a century, his colleagues, clients, students, and family have known him by many names — the Tree Whisperer, the Grandfather of the Prairie, the Godfather of Savanna Studio — and every one of them fits. A lifelong conservationist, ecologist, historian, illustrator, hunter, angler, photographer, and artist, Gary is the author and illustrator of two landmark works: Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Rural and Urban America and North American Plantfile — books that continue to shape the field of landscape architecture. His most enduring legacy, however, may be Savanna Studio at Iowa State: the only traveling landscape architecture studio of its kind in the world. Over two decades, Gary led more than 1,000 students out from behind their desks and into the field — to the Boundary Waters, Yellowstone, Theodore Roosevelt, the Badlands, and beyond — because, as he has always believed, "you can't develop a relationship with the landscape from behind a desk." Gary loves the great White Oak, the Pagoda and Flowering Dogwood, and any native prairie forb. His granddaughters will tell you he is decidedly not a fan of petunias, lilacs, or red-leafed varieties. And he has spent a lifetime restoring 40 acres of never-tilled original Iowa land — wetland, prairie, and forest — to the way it was always meant to be. "Long after we've come and gone, a tree still stands." — Gary L. Hightshoe Gary L. Hightshoe is one of five Kate Shu Collective STAR Resident Artists and a treasured member of the Monarch Shoppe family. His mugs are an invitation — to hold something handcrafted, to slow down, and to remember that the land has stories worth telling. About this Mug: • Available in 11 oz, 15 oz, and 20 oz • Premium white gloss finish • Printed using dye sublimation technology — the image is fused directly into the ceramic surface for vivid, true-to-life color that won't fade, crack, or peel. Ever. • Handle stays cool even when your coffee is boiling • Microwave and dishwasher safe • Print quality is exceptional — exactly as pictured
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Before farm-fresh food could reach your table, it had to survive an Iowa winter. That meant hay — hundreds of rectangular bales stored in barn lofts to feed the cattle through the long cold months when the pastures went quiet. The hay elevator, a motorized conveyor that lifted bales from wagon to loft automatically, was one of the quiet revolutions that made it all possible. More hay stored efficiently meant healthier livestock through winter. Healthier livestock meant better milk, better meat, better eggs come spring. Farm-fresh wasn't a marketing term — it was the result of an entire family's year-round labor, supported by tools like this one. Gary L Hightshoe captured this barn and elevator south of Ames in 1972, in his earliest years at Iowa State — a young professor already chasing the stories written into the landscape. Good food has a long story. This is part of it. Gary L. Hightshoe is an Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture at Iowa State University, where he taught plant materials, planting design, and landscape resource management for more than 47 years. Over the course of nearly half a century, his colleagues, clients, students, and family have known him by many names — the Tree Whisperer, the Grandfather of the Prairie, the Godfather of Savanna Studio — and every one of them fits. A lifelong conservationist, ecologist, historian, illustrator, hunter, angler, photographer, and artist, Gary is the author and illustrator of two landmark works: Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Rural and Urban America and North American Plantfile — books that continue to shape the field of landscape architecture. His most enduring legacy, however, may be Savanna Studio at Iowa State: the only traveling landscape architecture studio of its kind in the world. Over two decades, Gary led more than 1,000 students out from behind their desks and into the field — to the Boundary Waters, Yellowstone, Theodore Roosevelt, the Badlands, and beyond — because, as he has always believed, "you can't develop a relationship with the landscape from behind a desk." Gary loves the great White Oak, the Pagoda and Flowering Dogwood, and any native prairie forb. His granddaughters will tell you he is decidedly not a fan of petunias, lilacs, or red-leafed varieties. And he has spent a lifetime restoring 40 acres of never-tilled original Iowa land — wetland, prairie, and forest — to the way it was always meant to be. "Long after we've come and gone, a tree still stands." — Gary L. Hightshoe Gary L. Hightshoe is one of five Kate Shu Collective STAR Resident Artists and a treasured member of the Monarch Shoppe family. His mugs are an invitation — to hold something handcrafted, to slow down, and to remember that the land has stories worth telling. About this Mug: • Available in 11 oz, 15 oz, and 20 oz • Premium white gloss finish • Printed using dye sublimation technology — the image is fused directly into the ceramic surface for vivid, true-to-life color that won't fade, crack, or peel. Ever. • Handle stays cool even when your coffee is boiling • Microwave and dishwasher safe • Print quality is exceptional — exactly as pictured