photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

Stan Herd's latest artwork, "Young Woman of Mexico," is unveiled just north of Lawrence on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

Crop artist Stan Herd unveiled a new earthwork Wednesday to the northeast of Lawrence in honor of Mexico’s Independence Day.

The artwork, titled “Young Woman of Mexico,” is a collaboration between Herd and Soileh Padilla Mayer, consul of Mexico in Kansas City. It’s located northeast of Lawrence in a field near Kansas Highway 32 and 230th Street, and it features a woman’s face in profile with the text “TO OUR NEIGHBORS OUR FRIENDS OUR ALLIES” and “VIVA MEXICO.”

Mexico celebrated its Independence Day on Sept. 16 — for the first time under a female leader, President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Herd is a native Kansan but has created earthworks all over the world, including a four-acre permanent installation in China’s Yunnan Province called the “Young Woman of China” that took two years to build. His more recent pieces in the Lawrence area have included a work urging the relocation of a utility-scale solar energy project in April 2024 and a portrait of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris later that year.

photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

Stan Herd and Soileh Padilla Mayer stand in front of Herd’s recently completed artwork, “Young Woman of Mexico,” on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

The original sketch for Stan Herd’s latest artwork rests on a table on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

Stan Herd’s latest artwork, “Young Woman of Mexico,” is unveiled just north of Lawrence on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

Stan Herd’s latest artwork, “Young Woman of Mexico,” is unveiled just north of Lawrence on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

Mulch, earth, and tools lay next to the freshly completed earthwork by Stan Herd on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

People gather to view an earthwork by Stan Herd on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.