The seedy side of the Minnesota State Fair

THE SEEDY SIDE OF THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR: One of the more popular exhibits at the Great Minnesota Get-Together is the Crop Art display in the Horticulture Building . The first Crop Art competition was held in 1965 and in the past 59 years, its entries have increased in number and creativity. M and I are just two of the many fairgoers who usually stand in a long line patiently waiting for our turn to view the artwork. But this year, we were privileged to get a sneak peak an hour before the building opened to the general public. Like the fine art I highlighted in my last blog, there were many entries that caught my eye. I’d like to share a few with you.

But first, I’d like to offer a very short tutorial on crop art so that you will be as amazed at these creations as I was. All entries must be the work of the exhibitor, and no kits can be used. What is fun about the crop art is the subject matter of the works: serious, comical, commemorative, political, and just about everything in between.

Only certain materials may be used, and those materials must be listed on a 4″ x 6″ legend card that accompanies the entry. Here is the official list from the Fair’s Crop Art Entry Rules: “A. Seeds, stems, heads or panicles, and fruiting bodies or structures of oats, wheat, quinoa, barley, flax, rye, all corn types, amaranth, canola, lentils, soybeans, edible field beans, sunflowers, common buckwheat, field peas, millets, safflower, sorghum, sugar beet, sudan grass, common forage grasses (timothy, bluegrass, bromegrass and grasses, etc.), clovers, alfalfa, wild rice and all poppy seeds, as well as yellow mustard seed. Crop plants shall be those specimens grown in Minnesota; white rice, sesame seeds and anise may not be used. Superintendent shall be the final authority regarding crops grown in Minnesota” (https://assets.mnstatefair.org/pdf/competition/24-ahb-crops-pb.pdf).

Athena Hollins used mustard seed and wild rice. Class 11 Amateur, Special Occasion Crop Art (1st year of the new MN state seal) .

Mary Beth Leone-Getten used: birch bark, black beans, black lentils, black seed, chia seed, millet, partridge pea, pearled barley, poppy seed, red sorghum, white quinoa, and wild rice. Class 17 Novice.

Kristin Smith used: pearled barley, oat seed, sorghum, rye, quinoa, golden flax, black lentils, brown lentils, French lentils, rice, brown flax, amaranth, millet, and alfalfa. Natural Colors, Class 1 Amateur.

Wendy Brozic use: barley, canola, clover, rye, and wild rice (There may have been more seeds, but my phone camera inadvertently cut off the bottom of the legend). Class 11 Amateur, Special Occasion Crop Art (established c. 1954),

Laura Melnick, Natural Colors, Class 2 Advanced. She used so many different seeds that her legend card was done in small print and didn’t translate in a photo for me to share the information.

Seeds used: birdsfoot, trefoil, canola, timothy, poppy seeds, bromegrass, grits, cream of wheat, salsify.

This last photo is of Lillian Colton’s portrait of Johnny Carson entered in 2005 and displayed with some of her other portraits this year. Colton was a perennial winner of the competition, and her legacy led to a 2007 publication honoring her, Seed Queen: The Story of Crop Art and Amazing Lillian Colton by Colleen Sheehy.

Colton’s obituary from the March 22, 2007, edition of the Owatonna People’s Press stated: “She first entered her artwork in competition at the Minnesota State Fair in 1965. In her second year of competition, she earned a second-place ribbon. In 1973, she won “Best of Show” for the fair and earned 12 such “Best of Show” awards from the state fair before retiring from competition in 1982. Since that time, she worked for the state fair as a demonstrator of crop art. ‘They put her on the payroll,’ said her son Jon Colton of Owatonna. Last year, at the age of 94, Lillian Colton demonstrated her work every day at the state fair, her son said.”

To learn more about crop art, visit: https://www.cropart.com/