By MINDY KEPFIELD

Staff writer

Artist Stan Herd has installed earthworks art projects all over the globe. This summer, he will paint a mural in his home state.

A Lawrence native, Herd shared his plans Monday for a mural that will grace the Sunflower Theatre in Peabody.

The artwork will feature sunflowers be paid for with a $9,200 grant from Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission.

Herd became interested in the project when organizers Susan Mayo and Marilyn Jones approached him.

“I thought that it’s good to keep your hands and your heart in your home state,” he said.

“This place has got the coolest group of women I have met. They are just very visionary and powerful and active, and I just like that energy, so I want to be a part of it.”

The top panel of the mural, known as Project Helianthus, will feature art deco lettering, respecting the Sunflower Theatre’s original décor. The bottom will be designed with community input.

Herd plans to paint a cluster of sunflowers in a vase on the artwork’s center panel.

“I’m going to do my version of my favorite Van Gogh sunflower painting,” he said.

To raise money, the Sunflower Theatre committee auctioned old equipment from the time the building was a bowling alley.

Jones sold potato donuts and coffee for a $5 donation, and local artist Bonnie Shaw offered decorated planters for sale.

Organizers plan to unveil the mural Oct. 2 during Peabody’s annual Fall Festival.

That day, Sunflower Theatre will also present “Memories in Motion,” a dance performance choreographed by Cheyla Clawson, associate director of the school of performing arts at Wichita State University.