Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…
Our State Fair may have ended last Sunday, but I’m not finished with it yet! Admittedly, attending the fair and Fan Expo Chicago a week apart was perhaps a bit much. Nevertheless, we’re going into (hopefully) a much more relaxing weekend that’ll give me the free time and mental space to tie up some loose ends…starting with two more State Fair photo galleries.
Anne and I are at that age when we’re more interested in visiting the exhibit halls than we are in rattling our bones on the Midway rides. We enjoy seeing what new works of paint, photography, building blocks, and science have been offered up for the various competitions. The State Fair holds its massive celebrations on behalf of our farmers, but Indiana has no shortage of artists, either. Whether adults or kids, the illustrators come from all demographics, work in multiple media, and bring ideas from pop culture as well as from their own influence and home life. They each contribute in their own ways to the Hoosier State hometown legacy.

A glass Ursula by Ashley Smith, the same artist as last year’s glass Deadpool.

Spider-Punk! The breakout MVP of last year’s Across the Spider-Verse.

Neytiri from the world of Avatar!

A Muppet and a pinata of Bluey’s kid sister Bingo. Special thanks to the toddler who ran past the display pointing and yelling, “BINGO!”, which saved me some research.
To be concluded! Other chapters in this very special miniseries:
Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour
Part 2: Let’s Pretend We’re Influencers
Part 3: Where the Art Museum Meets the Chainsaw
Part 4: Land of the Glowing Giants
Part 5: Food for Displaying, Not Devouring
Part 6: The Year in Lego
Part 7: The Year in Antiques
Part 9: The Rest of Our Day
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