The Shake Up

What’s your favorite? 

What?  Oh, you want us to specify an object, huh.

What’s your favorite … color, animal, location, climate, time of day, time of year, insect, plant, fish, texture, medium …?

Whatever your favorite is, you can probably find it somewhere in the Competitive Entries department.  Rows and rows of photography, paintings, drawings and textiles present the human’s interest and depiction of things admired.  The amazing talent of Kentuckians fills up the South Wing A.  Colorful and monochromatic photos of parks, people and textures will jump off the canvas and inspire, delight and intrigue.  Paintings and drawings range from realistic to impressionistic, including a large replica of Van Gogh’s Starry Night using paint color swatches.  Large, hand dyed fabrics look more like paintings or stained glass than anything else. 

Even the neighboring homemade wines and beers take inspiration from their fine arts friends with labels that could have placed well in the painting and drawing categories.  Beyond the Christmas trees (who knew this was a category?), are the miniatures and wood carvings.  Some of the miniatures look like you could just shrink down and step right into them, see My Ole Kentucky Home.  Others are just humorous, or so small you wonder if the creator used a magnifying glass to paint them. 

Should I keep describing every awesome thing I saw?  Probably not, but you can bet you’ll spend at least an hour in this area.  Beautiful handcrafted quilts, smooth and delicate woodcarvings, large and uniform flowers, bright and colorful fish tanks and perfectly glazed pottery are also located in this area. 

So, what’s your favorite?  You’ll probably find it in the competitive entries area, and you’ll be amazed at all the talent in one area.

John Small, the winner of the Kentucky State Fair Purchase Award