If you are from Minnesota you likely know what I’m referring to. Love it or hate it, for 12 days each year millions of people from all over the state descend on Falcon Heights, Minnesota and the grounds of the Minnesota State Fair. Running through Labor Day, it marks the unofficial end of summer with school starting for most kids the next day.

In addition to more food than you can shake a Pronto Pup stick at, other big draws include live music, amusement park rides, animals (and more animals), giant vegetables and competitions galore. As a fine artist in Minnesota one of our biggest bragging points is getting accepted into the highly competitive Fine Arts Competition. Thousands of entries are received each year with something like 300 pieces getting accepted. Getting your work in front of millions of eyes is a pretty big deal and may I say, even BLOGworthy!

So here I am bragging, I mean BLOGGING about my accepted entry this year!

If you missed it, “Nighttime in the Garden Room” was inspired by a visit to the historic Glensheen Mansion and my favorite space in the entire home, the Breakfast Room. It’s a dark and moody space with exquisite botanically inspired stained glass windows and beautiful green Rookwood tiled walls. If it were my house, I’d surround myself with plants and paints and live there 365 days a year.

Because my home is hundreds of miles away without a lovely green tile to be found (yet!) I came back and fully obsessed about the space - or more aptly, the magical feeling of that space. I imagined the Breakfast Room at night, off view from the public with the moon glancing off Gitche Gumee and bouncing around the shiny green walls.