By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A Fort Hays State University student has received a grant from the Heartland Community to paint a mural depicting native grasses, wildflowers and insects in downtown Hays.
The mural will be on the east side of the Andre Tax and Accounting building, 117 E. 10th St. Once it is complete, you should be able to view it from the downtown pavilion.
PJ Stauffer, 23, is a graduate student in art at FHSU, studying drawing.
Stauffer was a member of the Creative Arts Society at FHSU during his undergraduate studies. The group had the idea for a mural of native grasses, but the project never got off the ground because of the pandemic.
Stauffer is from a rural area of Glen Elder. He grew up on a farm and is familiar with native prairie scapes.
"I have always liked bugs and creatures and stuff, and flowers are easy for me to do because I find them beautiful," Stauffer said.
Stauffer painted three murals at his high school in Beloit. Two were landscapes, and one was an abstract painting with a musical theme.
The mural will be interactive. Visitors will be able to scan a QR code to see a list of insects, flowers and grasses depicted in it.
The mural will depict native grasses such as windmill grass, bluestem, Indian grass, switchgrass and side oats.
Some of the flowers will include bundle flower, coreopsis, Maximilian sunflower and cornflower.
Some insects will include silk moths, velvet ants, blacktail field cricket, mantis, bumblebees, rolly pollies, parasitic wasps, tiger beetles and orb weavers.
"A lot of people say Kansas is just a lot of dead grass," Stauffer said. "It's not dead. There's a lot of colors out there, actually."
"It really bothers me that people say Kansas is ugly," he said.
He said he wanted to magnify the plants and insects so people would feel they were the same size as the landscape and insects.
"It's stuff that's very small, and we tend to overlook it, but when it's the same size as you, I think that's cool," Stauffer said.
He worked with the FHSU biology department to identify the wildlife, flora and fauna to be included in the mural.
"I came forward with a list of everything I wanted to put in it, and some are domestic. I learned the difference between things that grow here now very well because we brought them here versus stuff that has been here since before we got here," Stauffer said.
The Werth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics at FHSU and the building owner also contributed funds to the project.
Stauffer said he hopes to start on the mural as soon as possible and complete the painting by mid-August.
Stauffer will continue to work on his graduate degree at FHSU in the fall. In addition to continuing to create art, he hopes to teach when he finishes graduate school.