Notes from the State Fair...

...and some art.

First the fair. Chip and Shira were kind enough to let me tag along on their day at the state fair on Tuesday. I usually go with Doug and Kellie, but they are kind of busy with school, work, and moving, so I went with Chip and Shira and had a really nice day. The weather was gorgeous, but we spent most of our time in the air conditioned South Wing, so it wouldn't have mattered. We did have a lunch from the food tent out front, Mike Linnig's fish (and chicken for me, the fish non-liker) that was as good as usual, but much more expensive than in their locally famous restaurant. I was interested mainly in the fine arts and crafts, of course, and saw that neither my entries or Alissa's won any ribbons. I wasn't disappointed and discovered that there were some really great artists entered. My stuff was neither the best or the worst, which is fine with me. It was exciting to see my paintings displayed in such a large setting. Of course, I was dismayed to see no less than six portraits, all the same pose, of Barack Obama, and three of them won honorable mention ribbons. Even though they were in different media, they essentially all looked alike, like the cover of Time magazine. I don't know how they picked just 3 for ribbons. As for Alissa's photos, there were so many good ones I don't think I would have wanted to be the judge in that contest. Alissa's were just as good or better than the winners, in my opinion. Guess that's why nobody would ask me to be a judge!

We went from the fine arts displays to the commercial booths and the community service booths and collected some stuff. After several hours of walking, I was done in. It seems I don't have the stamina that I used to, and it was getting to where I had to rest every 10 minutes or so. I think that Chip and Shira were ready to go, too, and didn't seem to care that we didn't hit the midway or see the animals. They had brought their daughter over the weekend and saw animals then. So the last thing we did was get cotton candy for Aiva and Shira and a funnel cake to share (but I ended up eating most of it-yum!)and a pork chop sandwich to take home to Dad. All in all, I had a great time!

Second, the art. You can see I tried something different this week. I tried abstract. The first one you see is swirls using leftover paint from the main painting I did. On the second, I started with pure ultramarine blue, and kept adding white to change the value of the color. The whole painting was done with just those two colors and one brush. I used wavy strokes, and when it was done, it kind of reminded me of being in a plane and looking down at the clouds. Now I need a title for it. This is a great departure for me, and I probably won't do it too often, but I will try it again from time to time. I had fun with it, and it only took me about 40 minutes to complete. Life is good...