Bud Thompson started painting flags on ears of corn in 1990. The first ear he painted he gave to a friend as a birthday present.

The people at the party were so impressed they wanted to know if he had more painted ears for sale. Since that day he has had the pleasure of painting 2600 ears.

Bud's wife Edna Mae started helping him paint the ears of corn  in 1994. She begins the process by painting the blue field and red stripes. Bud completes the painting by adding the white stripes of the flag and the stars. It takes about two hours to complete each ear.

A 130 to 140 ears of corn, about 1 and 1/2 bushels,  are picked by hand from local farm fields each year. Several ears are given back to the local farmers that let Bud pick from their fields.

Buds painted ears of corn have been purchased by several business, from a local grain elevator, the Twomey Company, to the Chicago Board of Trade and Archer Daniels Midland in Decatur.

The corn is just as mother nature made it, I only change the color on each ear. Perfect ears are few and far between, so these ears are painted just as they developed, no two ears are the same in shape and size.

Every ear of corn has an even number of rows, and an average of 800 kernels.

I paint 13 rows, leaving from 1 to 9 rows unpainted.

I hope you enjoy my hobby as much as I enjoy painting them.