That’s not the great pumpkin — but what is it?

It is an unusual and eye-catching sight, that’s for sure.

Drivers passing a farm field on Sound Avenue in Riverhead this week can’t help but notice the giant sphere incongruously sitting in the field. Its unexpected appearance there and massive size will turn heads — even without onlookers knowing it was crafted using roughly 1,000 pairs of recycled denim jeans.

The 12-foot-tall sculpture, estimated to weigh roughly half a ton, is a part of a new art exhibit, titled “Harvesting Memories in Blue,” by Sherry Davis of Riverhead. It sits on the south side of Sound Avenue, just opposite the Sept. 11 memorial park on the corner of Park Road/Lt. Thomas Kelly Memorial Drive. 

Davis was inspired by memories of her youth, playing on her aunt and uncle’s farm outside of Toledo, Ohio, where she grew up. Denim and farming are intertwined, she said, an idea around which her denim-focused art installation is built.

“It’s important to honor the work they’ve done,” Davis said of farmers. “And not just the work, but what they’ve given to humanity. I mean, they feed us, they keep us alive. And I think that that’s really important and often overlooked.”  

“People drive past these fields and a lot of times they don’t think about what’s happening there that really provides us with sustenance,” she added. 

The sphere is on display on land owned by Walter Zilnicki Farms and currently farmed by DeLea Sod Farms, according to Davis. The North Fork’s agriculture — and the similarities to her upbringing in Ohio — was a key reason why she moved to Riverhead, she said. 

“The funny thing is, back when I grew up, I wasn’t allowed to wear a pair of jeans, because jeans symbolized you were going to work on the farm instead of going to college or doing other things,” Davis said. “So I think that was a Midwest thing for, especially, females.”

Davis’ mother refused to buy her jeans, but would buy her denim fabrics. Davis ended up sewing her first pair of jeans — a skill that is now key to her art.

“I think denim evokes so many different emotions and so many different memories,” Davis said. “That’s important to me that people think about that — but also think about the textile waste that’s in this world.”

Many of the jeans, Davis said, were donated by the Baiting Hollow Congregational Church, who have way too many of them to sell in their thrift store. 

Davis said she’s been using recycled materials throughout her time as an artist. 

“Why buy anything new when there’s so much out there that really can be used?” Davis said. “So I’ve been doing that since I’ve started making art.”

Davis wheeled the frame of the sphere from the backyard of her home off of Park Road to the Sound Avenue farm field and spent most of the day and night on Tuesday assembling the sculpture from 75 triangles of denim netting.

“I wanted to make something big and I love spheres,” Davis said. “There’s something about spheres I’m just completely attracted to.”

The denim sphere will not be the only piece of art on display from “Harvesting Memories in Blue,” which was funded using a New York State Council for the Arts grant given to the Huntington Arts Council. 

Another work in the exhibition will be a variety of different pockets from her own jeans holding different items and showing different wear patterns. “I’m hoping to pull memories from people based on those different things that they see in the pockets,” she said.

The rest of the exhibit will be on display at the East End Arts satellite gallery in the Peconic Crossing apartment building in Riverhead (11 West Main Street). It will run from Sept. 21 to Oct. 13. The sphere will remain on display at the Sound Avenue farmland for at least three weeks, according to Davis.