Makin’ Hay at the Missions

Sculpture

My husband ran across these interesting sculptures near the intersection of Mission Parkway and Ashley Road while taking his aunt to visit Mission San Jose.  

 A sign nearby gives credit for “Makin’ Hay at the Missions” to the Alturus Foundation  and Public Art San Antonio with special thanks to Mayor and Mrs. Phil Hardberger, Bexar County 4H, Burbank High School FFA, TBarL Ranches, Displays Unlimited, Inc. and Truax Construction, Inc. 

The Alturus Foundation website says that the “Makin’ Hay” figures, by sculptor Tom Otterness,  celebrate the rich and changing relationship of the American people with their agricultural surroundings and heritage.  The Alturus Foundation supported the installation of the “Makin’ Hay” figures previously in Sun Valley, Idaho; Pullman, Washington; and at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.  

Stanford University reports that Otterness created the sculpture for a hay-bale decorating contest sponsored by farmers living in Utica, Montana.  Jim Yaw of the Walla Walla Foundry in Washington state, which fabricated the sculpture, said that there’s more steel than hay in Makin’ Hay: The figures weigh between 3,500 and 5,000 pounds. 

Stanford University noted that the sculpture’s three figures riff playfully on The Gleaners, a painting by 19th-century French artist François Millet.   

“Makin’ Hay” was installed in San Antonio in March and will be here for two years.