I'm missing the Minnesota State Fair again this year, which means once again a virtual posting about the Crop Art exhibit. Last year I cobbled together photos from social media. This year, I have photos directly from Daughter Number Three-Point-One, who attended (plus one photo she missed, via social media).
(As always: click any image to see it enlarged.)
As it is generally known for, much of the art had a clearly political message, and not surprisingly, abortion rights were the most prominent topic.
First there was Laura Melnick's annual winning entry:
Then several by more novice crop artists:
This one may need some explanation: Scott Jensen is the Republican candidate for Minnesota governor. He is a physician, hence the outfit. He also recently compared vaccine- and mask-mandates to Nazism.
This last one, by Kate Martin, may not appear to be as directly related, but that QR code, rendered in black and white dyed seeds, takes you to the website of the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Other political topics included so-called critical race theory:
In which CJ Madsen reproduced a political cartoon by the Star Tribune's now-retired artist Steve Sack.
And this inside message from Elena Dahlager, daughter of Laura Melnick (photo by Ashley Fairbanks via Twitter):
Check out the initial letters of the wording above and below the cat... and the wink... It may take a search, if the reference doesn't come to you immediately.
In a tie-in with the abortion-rights topic, Dahlager has announced she is raffling off her entry to one of the people who contributes $25.00 the National Network of Abortion Funds before Labor Day. (DM a receipt to this Twitter account.)
And finally, there were the crop art entries that spoke to me for other reasons, usually a combination of quality and subject:
Al's Breakfast, a tiny restaurant in the Dinkytown neighborhood near the University of Minnesota, rendered by Ike Whiting right down to the tiny mouse door.
Meredith Kos took off on Linda Wing's tradition of "bad seed" entries by creating a literal bad seed.
Kate Butler created a beautiful barn quilt from onion skins and wild rice. Among all the seeds, it stood out.
Once more our state bean-counter, Julie Blaha, had two entries, including this tastefully typographic piece.
Lori Anderson's blue gill is pixelated perfection.
I don't know what Gayle Deutch's Goots goose means, but this is just funny, and the scale difference of the seed/bean choices and the color use is so sophisticated.
The technique on Kate Martin's Midwestern Mom is novice level, but her color, concept and composition are extra-fun.
I not even a huge fan of Studio Ghibli and I adore this pristine black and white illustration from Ann Peters. It's like a piece of jewelry, right down to her seed card.
And to close out the year: one perky, feisty State-Fair-food-themed message:
May we all stay salty.
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All photos by Daughter Number Three-Point-One, unless noted otherwise.
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My past Minnesota State Fair posts:
- 2021 crop art
- 2019 the non-political State Fair
- 2019 the political State Fair
- 2018 crop art
- 2018 a few more from the Fair
- 2017
- 2016 crop art
- 2015
- 2014
- 2013
- 2012
- 2011
- 2010 part 1
- 2010 part 2 with art show and crop art
- 2009 part 1
- 2009 part 2 with art show and crop art
- 2008
1 comment:
I was going to guess that GOOTS memorialized a child’s pronunciation or spelling, but no. It’s a meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/goots.
I’d rather say S, not ACAB. I’m thinking, say, of Capitol police on January 6.
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