Portrait of Gov. Pawlenty

Over at Nick Coleman's blog he's running a contest for what should be outgoing Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's official portrait.

Vote for the crop art portrait by Teresa Anderson, I say.

Fruit Sticker Art Show

Art made of fruit stickers (it's almost crop art) by Andy Singer (that's his "Vege Cat" image above), Andrea McCormack and Richard Carlson on display at the Mississippi Market Co-op, Sunday, Nov. 14 to Tuesday, Dec. 14.

Opening reception 2 to 3 p.m., Sun., Nov. 14. BYOF (Buy Your Own Food) meet 'n' eat some fruit with the artists.

Mississippi Market Co-op
1500 West 7th Street (near Otto), St. Paul, MN 55102
Open daily 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
msmarket.coop

Crop Art now at the Minnesota State Fair

The Crop Art exhibit/competition is up now in the Ag-Hort-Bee building at the Minnesota State Fair. Go see it! Crop Art live and in person. It's quite overwhelming. And wonderful. And the quality of the pieces this year is excellent.

Incidentally, here's the Fair's official list of winners (PDF).

Works in progress

Before the thing can be entered in the Fair, it needs a seed legend and a wire to hang it with. There they are on the back of the clock. The right picture is the post-delivery celebration dinner of Pad Pak with chicken at Raum Mit Thai in downtown St. Paul. Done! And, yum!

Works in progress

A natural light photo of the nearly finished piece. And back to the kitchen table for a last look -- hey, the clock has hands now!

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Numbers 1 and 2 get some seeds. Must have done number 5 somewhere along the line. Painted the rest of the outline. Kinda wanted to do millet all the way to the edge, but I really didn't have the time.

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Numbers 9, 10 and 11 get a little attention.

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Number 4 and number 7 get seeds.

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Milleting my way around the entire outside edge. Takes longer than I thought it would take.

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Millet around the edge. Circles within circles, man.

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Back on the amaranth for a while -- to fill in around the clock post in the center.

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Put in the clock and the hanging stuff on the back.

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Still millet. I don't want to go completely to the edge with millet. But I might.

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It's millet -- have you heard of it?

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Gotta love that millet.

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I foresee a time -- a time not too long from now -- when I won't be pasting millet. But, until that time comes . . . I'm pasting millet.

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More millet, please.

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On the millet-go-round. Heh-heh.

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Millet!

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Continuing work on the millet.

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Millet. A bunch of it.

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Working on pasting millet. A lot of area to fill -- so I'm lining up the millet to try to add a little visual interest.

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Millet! Around and around.

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Amaranth. Whew!

[Proofreading update: Did I say "Amaranth"? I shoulda said "Millet."]

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I'm into the millet. Nice color. Nice size. Nice shape. I like millet.

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Finished the birdsfoot trefoil.

Painting the background getting ready to start slinging millet.

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Done with number 12 -- with the birdsfoot trefoil part, anyway. On to number 3 and starting the inside of number 8.

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Still on the birdsfoot trefoil. Done with number 9. Moving on . . .

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Birdsfoot trefoil for the dark circles. Number 6 is done, I'm getting close to done on number 9 and I'm just starting number 12. (You might be able to see the progress if you click on the picture for a closer view.)

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Amaranth has left the building. I'm done with amaranth -- except for some touch-up work around the center once the clockworks are in place. Take it, birdsfoot trefoil!

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Done with the amaranth circles. Starting on the amaranth number 6. And a little birdsfoot trefoil.

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Amaranth. It's amaranth.

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Put in some pasting hours over at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Well, yes -- that is amaranth.

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Gee, that amaranth looks terrific.

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"A" is for amaranth.

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Amaranth . . . continued.

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Amaranth. Filling in. Seed by seed.

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Done with the rays. On to the dots. Still with amaranth.

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Amaranth. Did I mention that each of these clock pictures represents an hour of work? It's true.

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Gee, amaranth is a little seed.

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Amaranth here, amaranth there, amaranth everywhere.

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Did someone say "Amaranth?"

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Amaranth.

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Amaranth.

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Amaranth continues.

(Click for bigger.)

Works in progress: "Doh!"

Wild rice going on.

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Amaranth.

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Now on to some amaranth for a while.

Works in progress: "Doh!"

David Cohen is working on Homer in seeds. He's doing the underpainting now. Soon it will be time to get pasting!

Works in progress: Storage

Here's Teresa Anderson with a tale of crop art horror.

Those of us who are nerdish enough to complete our crop art project early are then faced with the problem of storing it safely until the State Fair. As our dog ate the sunflower seeds off a previous year's entry, I decided to store this year's rather ungainly 3-D effort in the cool, dark basement. The very next day, I went downstairs and discovered a confused bird flying around! Fortunately, he (she?) had not discovered the potential seed source. I then moved the THING back upstairs where it sits on the unused dining room table, covered by this beautiful dust cloth.

Works in progress

Starting my piece by painting the board.

Still more painting.