Daughter Number Three: Politics at the 2019 Fair

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Politics at the 2019 Fair

Yes, it's that time of year once again: the Minnesota State Fair. I headed over today, which is earlier than I usually manage it. I thought this time I would split my post into two, covering the political Fair today and the nonpolitical tomorrow.

Some of what I saw was overtly political, as in the upcoming presidential election. First, the results so far of the bean poll at the Minnesota DFL booth:

What that shows is a strong majority for Warren, followed by a close race for second between Klobuchar and Buttigieg, Sanders in fourth, and Biden in fifth (his tube is on the far left side of the photo).

The crop art had more political entries than I have ever seen, and several were directly related to the election or the current occupant:

"2020 is coming!" by Patricia Mack

Marge Moe (competing in the under age 12 category)

"Wheel of Misfortune" by Kate Martin

Mark Dahlager

There were two about members of Congress:

Cathy Camper

"Squad Seeds" by Meghan Flynn

Then there were the ones covering political issues, of which immigration was the most common:

Charlotte Ferlic

Frances Glenn was also competing in the under 12 category. (I'm not totally sure this is supposed to comment on immigration, but I suspect it is.)

Laura Melnick, withering through Dr. Seuss as usual. Note the barbed wire (made of seeds, of course) just inside the picture frame.

Patti Paulson. (I forgot to photograph the other side of the globe, darn it.)

The second-most common topic was climate change:

"Why I joined Extinction Rebellion" by Mina Leierwood

Mina Leierwood (her second entry), creating the Extinction Rebellion logo out of seeds.

Lisa Carlson (quoting Greta Thunberg, whose name runs up the left side of the image).

The other political pieces were one-offs by topic:

Jill Waterhouse created a pair of Black Lives Matter sunglasses

Cheryl Madsen

A couple of them would hardly have seemed political if I had seen them in some other decade, but in our current era I think they qualify:

Perry McGowan

Teresa Anderson

Marta Shore

As always, the scarecrow entries are just outside the crop art gallery's exit. There were a couple of other political ones, but they weren't that interesting... this one caught my eye, though:

This RBG super diva wears a sweatshirt that says "I work out for justice" and her lace collar is intact.

The last piece for the day was a relief print created by a high school senior, which I saw among the pencil drawings and textile works of the Creative Arts building (not the art show):

It won a ribbon in its category.

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My past Minnesota State Fair posts: