It’s county fair time. When I was 14 all that meant was riding the Tilt-a-Whirl two dozen times and getting to see big-name entertainment in the giant grandstands. That was in a mega-urban area and if people still entered their home-canned goods or their market hogs, I was unaware of it (and much too sophisticated to care).
It’s a little different when you live in a county that’s basically one vast rural neighborhood. Here, the main stage holds an audience of 100 on plastic lawn chairs and “entertainment” might mean a polka band or a little girl giving a presentation on how to raise rabbits. But everybody … I mean everybody … enters something or participates in some way.
Furrydoc might dazzle ’em at the flower show (after conducting vet checks of 4H animals). I can’t avoid running into somebody I know working various booths. The lady who used to cut my hair runs the equestrian events. A friendly acquaintance who shares a name with me always gets blue ribbons on her quilts. So naturally, I have to join in this fun.
This year, with new drawings and paintings in hand, I decided I was going to aim for knocking the reigning art champion off his (not very high, considering the stakes) perch. I told my friend who owns Brandy the black dog that I believed her portrait had a shot at winning the Grand Champion ribbon.
Didn’t happen.
Brandy scooped up a blue, a special judges award, and a reserve champion ribbon. So I’m hardly complaining.
And I did knock Mr. Champion (a really nice guy, but not all that good an artist) off his perch. I took the Grand Champion ribbon … for a painting I almost didn’t bother to enter, and which you guys didn’t think that much of when I posted it here. It was hanging right next to Brandy in the exhibit.
So thanks, FishOrMan, for inspiring me to do The Colors of the Palouse, which took a blue, a special, another reserve champion*, and finally the top prize in the adult division of the show.
Can’t say I understood the judges’ choice. “Palouse” was a quick exercise that took about three hours and to my eyes was loaded with imperfections. Brandy was a labor of love and the best piece of art I’ve ever done.
When I asked the superintendent of the art building why that choice, she pointed out that the chief judge clearly had a “thing” for abstract images with subtle, shifting colors. (The top juvenile winner, a few steps away, was simply a collection of interesting color gradations, beautifully done and displayed.)
Then she said something that gave me a smile. “The judge stood there with the Grand Champion ribbon in her hand. She started to put it on the dog … then moved it over to the landscape … then back to the dog … then back to the landscape … then back to the dog … then finally she put it on the landscape.”
It may be time for me to move on to bigger and better things with my art. I’ve been reluctant to take that next step, whatever it might be. But I’m having more fun at the county fair as a grownup than I ever did on that Tilt-a-Whirl.
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* Which they proably should have removed once they decided to award the grand prize to that picture. But the sup felt we were entitled to all the ribbons we received “on the way up the ladder.”
Well done, Claire. Congrats.
Sounds like she knew the dog painting should win, but her “thing” for abstract shifting colors won out.
Congratulations.
A dog with subtle, shifting colors might be a sure thing next year!
A rural fair is the best!
My comment on Palouse is below….I heartily agree!
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Fred March 16, 2017 9:32 pm
Love it!
“A dog with subtle, shifting colors” — LOL, I’ll just have to give that a try now. I have some blurry old photos of Ava from when she was young and thought the camera was a deadly weapon she had to run away from. Maybe those will do for source material.
And Pat, you could be right — although maybe she just thought Brandy was too photographic, not artsy enough. Dunno.
But I’m happy to take your congrats, free.and.true and Fred. I know county fair prizes don’t mean much, but I was certainly happy to see them. And if you like the picture, all the better.
Actually, it’s more accurate to say I was happy once I saw them. I walked up to Brandy first thing and saw only the blue. I thought, “No way!” I knew she had to have done better than that. There were two ribbons on Colors of the Palouse, which seemed some compensation. But I noticed a wad of Scotch tape on Brandy’s frame. Hm. Looked down at the floor, and there were two more ribbons for Brandy and two more for Palouse, crumpled at my feet. The superintendant had to sort them all out and put them back up.
Claire what a great experience. I can emphasize with your feelings in winning a Ribbon at the County Fair. The only County Fair I ever entered was in Haines, and I made Nagoonberry Jelly for my entry. Well I not only won First Place but Best of Class, and a check. I was dumbfounded! That was the first time I made Nagoonberry, and actually my last; Nagoonberry grows in a marshy area and not in clusters, only one berry per stem. You need the right combination of weather to grow the berry plant and while I looked for years after, the plant never came back. I decided I couldn’t beat that County Fair winning so I never tried with another product. But I kept that winning jar of Nagoonberry Jelly with the ribbons attached on top of the cupboard until the ribbons slowly faded with time. Not sure where it is now; probably in a box in the garage or attic.
Great Memories. Thanks!!
Wow, Fred M. Nagoonberries. I never even heard of those, but now that I’ve looked them up, it appears they’re a living legend:
https://stabenow.com/2011/05/11/the-noble-nagoonberry/
So did you ever actually get to eat any part of that batch of fabled jelly?
I’m expecting a check, too, but I’m not holding my breath. The only other time I ever entered anything at the fair I won 10 ribbons, including three “specials,” and four months later I received a whopping $10.92!
I probably picked enough Nagoonberries to make a dozen or so jars of jelly. Nagoonberries have a lot of seeds so I used cheesecloth to strain out the seeds and to squeeze the berries for its juice. If I recalled, I had to submit 3-4 jars for the testing, and I gave some to family, but we did manage to try some jelly on toast…and maybe a PB&J sandwich or two. 😎
I know county fair prizes don’t mean much…
HERESY!
They mean something to you. And to your neighbors, who are important to you. And to us.
And they’re a lot more significant, these days, than the Nobel Peace Prize.
Congrats!
“Tilt-a-whirl”? You mean the Spin-n-puke. Last time I got talked into riding one of those, years ago, with my older daughter and my favorite (former) sister-in-law, I screamed such profanities the whole time that they laughed about that for weeks. I don’t use words like that… but they discovered I know them all.
Congratulations Claire!
“And they’re a lot more significant, these days, than the Nobel Peace Prize.”
That’s definitely one way of looking at it. 🙂 Too bad the premiums aren’t as high as ones the Nobel folks hand out, but yes, I’ve definitely done more for the cause of art than certain Nobel Peace Prize recipients have done for the cause of world peace.
“I don’t use words like that… but they discovered I know them all.”
Think of it as keeping in practice, just in case.
Well done! Congratulations!
Agreeing with larryarnold, congratulations, Claire. And hi to former neighbor Fred M., right up the Canal from my -real- home in Auke Bay.
“And they’re a lot more significant, these days, than the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Yeah, you have to actually accomplish something. Congratulations, Claire! Many more. I don’t know if Brandy is the best art you’ve ever done, but it’s possibly the best dog portrait I’ve ever seen. Palouse – I never figured out the “why” of abstract and have no eye for color – just painted my house dark green so it would blend with the trees, for god’s sake – so I’m not entitled to an opinion.
I knew I’d seen the name “nagoonberry” before! One of the catalogs I get regularly sells the plants: http://www.raintreenursery.com/Nagoon_Berry-4-Inch-Pot.html
I agree it’s time to move on to the next level, whatever that is, with your art work. That’s wonderful.
I’d have to say the odds are high that the judge isn’t a dog person. You probably could find out.
Congrats Claire!
Back east, the county/4H fair was never a big thing. Just another carnival. We just experienced the fun of exhibiting at our county fair out in rural country I think everyone in the county enters something. And the more entries, the more premiums you can win. Livestock is a big category, and so is canning/preserving. Folks will jar anything here and enter it in the fair.
Our fair had its first honey contest this year, so we decided to enter. Carol carefully set her cleaned, wiped bottles on the table then let out this blood curdling gasp as the intake woman grabbed them with her bare hands. “Honey is judged by cleanliness of container, no fingerprints” she explained. Then the pleasant helpful woman gave them a good 90° tilt to each side. C almost popped.
Cs’s jostled, pawed dark amber won Honorable mention. I didn’t let the intake woman touch the rest, and our golden took 2nd place, but won the prize for Best Tasting honey in northern Jefferson State.
We took some up to Salem for the State fair, not sure how that story ends yet, but if pick up is anything like drop off, there’s another tale to tell.
firstdouglas how the heck are you?? I use to moor my boat in Auke Bay for many years; also had many successful fishing trips from there. Use to live in the valley, south of the Junior High. I sure do miss Southeast Alaska. Hope all is well!
Fred M.
Maybe we’ve already crossed paths, Fred Muller, say at Outer Point or south Shelter, out fishing. I grew up on the water across the road from the Legion Hall, and still have a sister and brother in law living in the valley, though I don’t get up there very often. Hope you’re finding compensations for what we miss wherever you’re at now.
Maybe, I was there in the ’70’s and ’80’s. Had a Bayliner Saratoga with a 28′ blue hull and a white superstructure, a Volvo Penta I/O with a 10hp kicker ,and I called her The “Jacklyn C”. I think I was the only one guiding the kicker from one of the swim steps .Most of our fishing was up the channel to just north of Gull Island, down through the cut between Lincoln and Shelter Islands; around Shelter Island and around Admiralty Island south to The Sisters. You really didn’t have to go far to catch all the salmon and halibut you wanted. Texas living is good living but nowhere as great as Alaska, and I got to travel around quite a bit. If you want, we should probably take this thread offline. Try me at fmuller@FA-Texas.com.
Stay well
Do Brandy in Blue dog style, in 4 different colors like Warhol did ala Marilyn.Cant miss!
Fred — LOL! Reminds me of one of my favorite songs from Gypsy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wErVF7QwIY