Since we spent about 12 hours at the fair, we got to see many varied aspects of the fair. In the first part of the series, you got to see the goofy looking animals, which is how our day began. In this installment, you'll see some of the unqiue art. Then the final part will be about food. I should also mention that this post was specially requested by Simon, who, with her blog partner Ivan just celebrated her fifth blogoversary. Congratulations!
For some, unexplained reason, some counties get space to make diorama displays. One county made a "Pork is Safe" display with lots of glitter.
From Tricia
They wanted you to know that Swine Flu doesn't mean that you shouldn't eat pork. Noted. Apparently pigs also play baseball...
Another county taught people how to make cheese. They did this by showing them the "Home Cheesemaking" book on an easel. That is sure to inspire home cheesemaking. Other dioramas explained that wolves were endangered, that cannabis was an invasive weed, and that geocaching is fun.After admiring the amazingly artistic dioramas, we went to look at the seed art. The concept of seed art is very simple. Think elementary school crafts. Glue seeds on a piece of paper to make it look like a picture. First, however, you must admire the corn cobs, as this is where seeds come from. (Scott admires corn well. Ben doesn't do as good a job, especially for growing up on a corn farm.) You can win ribbons if you have good corn. It was unclear as to what made good corn and Ben would not enlighten us.
From Tricia
From TriciaThen there was the inevitable portrait of Obama. In seeds, of course. (I must keep reminding you that this is seed art...)
From Tricia
And the crowning glory. Self Portrait with First Ladies. Mrs. R.W. Regan and Mrs. G.W. Bush. We don't know who the self-portrait is of or why he has a halo or why the first ladies have animals on their shoulders. There are really so many unanswered questions about this picture. But apparently seeds were the proper medium, so there you have it. Self portrait with first ladies in seeds.
From TriciaAfter all the seed art (more on seed art here), we were feeling like we needed a little more dairy, so we headed to the dairy building. In the dairy building, there is a rotating refrigerated platform. This is so that viewers can watch as the butter sculpter sculpts the head of the Princess Kay of the Milky Way and the Princess Kay of the Milky Way finalists. Please, please, please read more about this fascinating Minnesota tradition on the Wikipedia link above. You will not be disappointed. Reid has remarked dismay in the past, that our lab does not qualify as being involved in the production of dairy products, because he thought that I would make an excellent contestant. (I am now too old, sadly.)
One of the benefits to being a finalist in the Princess Kay of the Milky Way competition, is that you get your head carved in a 90 pound block of butter AND then you get to keep the head.
The girl above was interviewed by two of the other finalists (while in the refrigerated platform). One of the questions was "What are you planning to do with your butter head?" You will be pleased to know that her parents had just bought her a freezer for her butter head and she was planning to use it for a corn roast or wedding. So there you go folks...art at the state fair.
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7 comments:
F1RST POST!!!!
Also, that self-portrait is horrifying. Did you notice that the names of the first ladies are in fact the highly misogynistic "Mrs. R.W. Reagan" and "Mrs. G.W. Bush"?
The fact that people like that are allowed to vote is seriously unfortunate.
Reid - I like to think that it's because that way they share an initial and it makes them closer. Or because seed artists are special. Or because seed artists are mocking the system. I really have no clue. But I had noticed and had forgotten to point it out, so thanks for bringing it up. I am really tempted to take up seed art after that one picture...
KP! This is everything I dreamed of when you said you were going to post about state fair art. Crazy baseball-playing pigs (does playing sports make their flesh tender?), seed art (so much so say I can't choose a parenthetical comment), and butter sculptures (I think one of those heads could last through two weddings, but who would want to saw their own head in half)... I'm completely delighted. And now, having been deeply inspired by the very words "home cheesemaking", I think I will go try it. Looking forward to tomorrow's post.
Simon - Yay! I'm glad this was everything you'd hoped it would be. I think that actually baseball playing pigs would be less tender and more stringy, so that would be a negative on their yummyness. Please feel free to ramble at will about seed art over the next month if you feel so inclined. If you think about it 90 pounds of butter really ought to last for at least two weddings even if you had, say 200 guests per wedding. That's still almost a quarter pound per person, which seems like a lot, but you would have to cut the head in half, or just melt it down...
Okay, maybe three or four weddings?
Or maybe three corn roasts and a wedding. Really, the point is there's a lot of butter. A lot of cookies could be made from it. There's enough butter that you need a new freezer to hold the butter. That's a lot of butter. Mmm. Butter.
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