Photos courtesy of John Maher It was the “elegant, gorgeous shape” of wooden orchard ladders that first struck artist John Maher. As the concept took shape in his mind, he thought about Christo’s Running Fence art installation in California in the 1970s, and visualized a hundred brightly colored orchard ladders running alongside highways and freeways. He then thought of using ­signage—a succession of billboards, like the old Burma Shave ads—to remind travelers of the importance of ­family farms. It took three years from conception to the completion in 2011 of his first Running Fruit Ladders installation along Highway 35 in […]