Indiana State Fair 2025 Photos, Part 5 of 7: The Year in Art

September 28, 2025 By in Indiana, Misc. Media Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Knitted Beatles in concert in a a display case.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles performing their big hit, “A Hard Day’s Knit”!

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…

Yep, I realize the fair ended over a month ago and no one cares anymore. Between Fan Expo Chicago, Dragon Con, movies, offline life and other hobbies, I’ve been sidetracked by higher priorities. Nevertheless, I’ve committed to finishing this miniseries of galleries for posterity and for myself. If a few images strike your fancy as well as mine, then hey, cool.

Anne and I are at that age when we’re more interested in visiting the exhibit halls than 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, sculptors, dollmakers and other artisans come from all demographics, work in multiple media, and bring ideas from pop culture as well as from their own influences and home lives. They each contribute in their own ways to the Hoosier State creative legacy.


a stained glass giraffe taller than me in an art gallery.

Stained glass giraffe by Ashley Smith, whose past works have included stained glass Ursula and stained glass Deadpool.

knitted doll of the Very Hungry Caterpillar in a display case

Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar.

knitted doll of Batty Koda

Batty Koda, Robin Williams’ character from FernGully: The Last Rainforest.

Knitted fantasy-RPG puppets around a table in front of a sign for The Druid's Den, probably a tavern.

Wool puppets from someone’s Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

white metal shelf with knitted octopus, knitted Chain Chomp, and white teddy bear.

Shelf-mates: an octopus, a Chain Chomp from the Super Mario universe, and a cozy winter teddy.

A knitted hood that looks like a red and white piranha plant, lined with plush teeth.

That time Mario skinned a Piranha Plant and wore it as a hat.

stuffed elephant in stuffed fighter plane!

A stuffed WWII fighter plane with an elephant pilot, from a most curious alternate Earth.

A tortoise sculpture on a tall green dais with a very large name tag.

A sizable tortoise named Shelly.

Bull head sculpture with every square centimeter covered in shiny objects.

A bejeweled bull’s head. (Possibly not real.)

White child-sized rocking chair covered in strips of Dr. Seuss art.

A child’s Dr. Seuss chair.

cello in a display case painted like Van Gogh's Starry Night.

A Starry Night cello.

Painting of a blond boy holding an open Starry Night umbrella.

Boy with Starry Night umbrella, like the ones Newfields was selling at their Lume installation four years ago.

Impressionist painting of Indianapolis' Soldiers and Sailors Monument at sunset.

Monument Circle at sunset.

eclectic painting with a cardinal, blue horse, basketball hoop, Indy Car, ears of corn, red barn, and so on.

An assortment of Indiana symbols in a sort of Paul Pope style.

Painting of State Fair exhibit of giant colorful frog statues.

The poison frog sculptures in last year’s “Illuminate” exhibition.

Painting of crab walking ashore holding fish in both claws.

A crab dead-lifting a fish in triumph.

A wall hanging of a smiling Monkey D Luffy.

Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece.

Faded light blue jeans with screen shots from eight different Miyazaki films sewn into them.

Miyazaki pants.

Painting of a young lady playing video games on a large flatscreen TV, lying on the floor with her legs propped up on the screen, which you'd think would interfere with her gameplay.

Gamer in repose.

Painting of house from "Up" flying high with lots of balloons tied to it.

Carl Fredriksen’s house from Up.

Painting of Wall-E floating high above Earth, playing with a Rubik's cube.

Pixar’s Wall-E.

Needlework version of an old Star Wars poster.

A Star Wars poster of sorts.

Seven needlework portraits of six major parks and the St. Louis Gateway Arch.

National parks and other attractions.

Painting of David Lynch in black-and-white in front of color snippets from some of his films.

A tribute to the late director David Lynch.

Ink drawing of Timothee Chalamet with stylized enlarged hairdo.

Timothee Chalamet, probably.

Black-and-white art of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

Harley Quinn.

Plate with a youngster's painting of the three "Hocus Pocus" witches, their house and other related things.

A salute to Hocus Pocus, which I haven’t seen.

Addams Family figurines carved in the Fisher Price style.

Fisher Price Addams Family!

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour
Part 2: The Soundtrack of Summer
Part 3: The Year in Food, “Look But Don’t Taste” Division
Part 4: The Year in Lego
Part 6: The Year in Antiques
Part 7: Outtakes and More!

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