Fall is not only harvest time in the American South, it's also time for the rice harvest in Japan, and some farmers have made some pretty cool art from the leftover straw.
Videos by Wide Open Country
As part of the Wara Art Festival, which has been taking place every harvest season since 2008, artists turn leftover rice straw into enormous animal statues. "Wara" is the English transliteration of the Japanese word for straw, and they do some pretty amazing things with it.
To make the sculptures, the artists start with a wooden frame. Much the same way you make a thatched-roof, artists then attach bundles of straw with rope.
This year the theme seems to be jungle animals, while last year, it was dinosaurs. There have also been sea creatures and insect sculptures.
Artists create the rice straw sculptures, but farmers worldwide can be an artistic bunch as well. Here in the U.S., one Kentucky town turns hay into art sculptures, albeit not the same way the Japanese do.
