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

from $16.00
Ask any Farm Kid who grew up before the hay elevator and they'll tell you — hay season was no joke. Hundreds of heavy rectangular bales, lifted by hand, tossed overhead into a second-story loft, in the middle of an Iowa summer. It was the kind of work that built character whether you wanted it to or not. The hay elevator changed the equation — a motorized conveyor that shuttled bales up automatically, turning a multi-day ordeal into something almost manageable. For the Farm Kid, it meant something too: less time in the loft and more time everywhere else. Gary L Hightshoe drew this barn and elevator south of Ames in 1972, in his first years at Iowa State — already teaching his students that the landscape has stories to tell, if you're willing to go find them. You can take the kid off the farm. You can't take the farm out of the kid. 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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Ask any Farm Kid who grew up before the hay elevator and they'll tell you — hay season was no joke. Hundreds of heavy rectangular bales, lifted by hand, tossed overhead into a second-story loft, in the middle of an Iowa summer. It was the kind of work that built character whether you wanted it to or not. The hay elevator changed the equation — a motorized conveyor that shuttled bales up automatically, turning a multi-day ordeal into something almost manageable. For the Farm Kid, it meant something too: less time in the loft and more time everywhere else. Gary L Hightshoe drew this barn and elevator south of Ames in 1972, in his first years at Iowa State — already teaching his students that the landscape has stories to tell, if you're willing to go find them. You can take the kid off the farm. You can't take the farm out of the kid. 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