By Mike Belt. Monday, March 5, 2001.
Lawrence Journal-World
Crop artist Stan Herd, Lawrence, discusses his trip to Cuba, where he worked
on the Rosa Blanca project, a rock mural honoring poet Jose Martí. Herd
and friend Bob Augelli spoke Sunday at the Lawrence Public Library.
Herd, a Lawrence crop and landscape artist, hopes to know in the next few
weeks if he will have permission to make a landscape portrait of Cuban poet and
patriot Jose Martí in Havana's harbor.
"The Cubans are very interested in it," Herd said during an
appearance before about 50 people Sunday night at the Lawrence Public Library
auditorium, 707 Vt.
Herd and friend Bob Augelli, Lawrence, discussed that project and one just
finished in January. Augelli assisted Herd in working with Cuba on the Rosa
Blanca project, or White Rose project. Herd made a white rose landscape art
formation in a Havana park. The white rose is taken from the name of one of Martí's
famous poems.
The Rosa Blanca idea was conceived a few years ago by Herd and Augelli over
a few beers at a Lawrence sports bar, they said.
"It was quite a long shot," Herd said. "As we pursued it,
then it became more and more possible."
Herd and Augelli won the support of several influential Cubans, including
Fidel Castro himself.
Herd wants to develop Martí's portrait on a hillside overlooking
Havana harbor, he said.
Both Herd and Augelli said they favor removal of the U.S. embargo against
Cuba. They think it eventually will come to an end. U.S. corporations are eager
to do business in Cuba, they said.
"A consensus is building that it (U.S. policy) needs to go in another
direction," Herd said.
He hopes his art projects will help improve U.S.–Cuban relations.
"This gives us a great opportunity to meet the Cuban people and tell
their story," he said. "I think we see this as a project of exchange." | 