ABOVE: Jeff Rouse removes the sheet off “Wilbur” as Alexandra Hurney, who did its artwork, looks on during an unveiling early Tuesday afternoon during the Martin County Fair at the Martin County Fairgrounds, Fairmont. These three hogs are the latest to be revealed to the public.

FAIRMONT– Going Hog Wild is in the midst of its second installment of hog statues to be sprinkled across Martin County. Three of them were unveiled Tuesday afternoon at the Martin County Fair.

Going Hog Wild started in the summer of 2021 with a goal of drawing attraction and tourism by promoting business, organizations and cities throughout the county, all while paying homage to the pork-producing success in Martin County.

Jeff Rouse, a member of the Martin County Arts Council and driving force behind the project, said they had planned to do another round next spring, but after the late May unveiling of the first 36 statues, people began reaching out immediately requesting a statue of their own.

“We thought we could move it up. The phone calls kept coming in so we decided to do phase two now,” Rouse said.

He said 50 people representing businesses and organizations around the county have reached out since then and have committed to a hog statue. They started working on the first three a few weeks ago and plan to do 36 in the second phase over the next six months.

A few more businesses are slated for the third phase but Rouse said they still have room for about 15 more. Right now the plan is to do 101 before stopping completely.

“It’s great fun and the response has been overwhelming, but this is becoming kind of like my full time job when I’m just a volunteer,” Rouse said with a laugh.

He said in the next phase several are going to Trimont, some to Truman, a few more to Welcome and a good amount more in Fairmont.

“I’m sure every town will be represented by the time we complete the whole project,” Rouse said.

Part of the goal with the project was not only to have the statues represent individual businesses and the county as a whole, but to give local artists the opportunity to engage in it.

About 15 artists had applied and worked on the first 36 statues and many of them have eagerly agreed to work on phase two and phase three, through Rouse said they’re open to having some new artists commit to working on a few.

“All of the artists are being assigned different people. They’ll be contacted in the next few weeks to see what the design should be for the pigs,” Rouse said.

Rouse admitted that the response they’ve received on the project has far exceeded what they anticipated and he credits that in large part to the artists who really stepped up the plate when designing and executing the art work on the statues.

One of the artists, Nancy Katzer, said, “almost none of us had painted a statue before so that’s been the first time for almost all of us. It’s challenging to take a design on paper and transfer to a three-dimensional element. It’s been challenging but fun to do.”

She said it’s also been fun to see “closet artists” come out and get involved in the project. She reiterated what Rouse said that they’re still open to having more artists join in.

The artists have been working with each individual business or organization to come up with a design, which Katzer said has worked well.

“A lot of them have great ideas or some say ‘just do what you want.’ It’s really been fun to work with the businesses,” she said.

This time around, as the first, the artists have worked on painting their statues at the Designing Signs Inc. warehouse.

“He’s generously continuing to let the artists paint the pigs in his warehouse which has been a tremendous help,” Rouse said of owner Jim Thate.

In addition to that help, Rouse said that nine title sponsors have stepped up to complete the project. They’re listed the platform the statues sit on, as well as on the goinghodwildinmartincounty.com website.

The current plan is to have the rest of the statues unveiled individually as they’re completed.