State Fair USA

Short film “The Story of a Fair” by Dan T. Hall

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:45:51 +0000

The Story of a Fair from vizmo films on Vimeo.

Dan T. Hall has aptly captured the Indiana State Fair in this short film. Ah, great memories!

JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:52:56 +0000

I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this video of “If You Let Me” by JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys from their Fidelity album. These two are Fair People. As they walk around the Midway, I feel I’m there. Great song. Can’t get it out of my head. Don’t want to.

A few years ago, a friend told me I looked like Chrissie Hynde. I couldn’t see the resemblance at the time, but now that we’re both added another fifteen years, I do.

Jersey Girl

Lesley Spanos — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:33:55 +0000

Found this pretty lady in the dairy barn at the Indiana State Fair. The barn has huge frosted windows along the western exposure, which let in a soft, filtered light when the sun is low in the sky. The light has a peaceful, ethereal quality which is nice for shooting photographic references for using in the studio later for painting.

Portrait of the Chicken as a Young Cockerel

Lesley Spanos — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:34:55 +0000

This dashing young fellow looked like he was posing for a formal portrait, so I ignored his striking tail feathers and zoomed in on his face.

I’d never painted chickens before this week, but now I wonder what took me so long. They are noble creatures.

What’s for dinner tonight? Chicken. I feel a little guilty…

Krembo

Lesley Spanos — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:52:01 +0000

The Blue Monkey Sideshow set wouldn’t be complete without the Master of Cermonies, Krembo, a dashing figure in Wild Bill Hickok beard and hair.

If you want to see Krembo and all the Monkey Men in action, check out their video below:

Pretty cool, eh?

Snoozin’

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:51:51 +0000

It was a hot and humid August day at the Indiana State Fair. This pig raised a lazy eyelid when he heard my camera, then went back to sleep. I guess when you’re on display from early morning until late at night, you need to be able to catch a nap whenever you can. What I loved was how it looked like he’d fallen asleep mid-step, his butt on the edge of his feed trough.

Sideshow

Lesley Spanos — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:17:20 +0000

“She has no arms, no legs, no bones in her body, yet she will talk to you and answer all of your questions.” That nightmarish refrain has haunted me since the early ’70s, when a 12-year-old me heard it on endless repeat at the entrance to the freak show at my county fair. The sing-song phrase burrowed into my subconscious and still resides somewhere next to uncomfortable (but delicious!) memories of Laffing Sal at Playland, and midnight showings of David Lynch’s classic film, Eraserhead.

Sensing a ripoff, I never paid the money to go inside and see the boneless lady, but now I wish I had. Or maybe it’s better left to the imagination.

In those days, no carnival was without some sort of freak show or sideshow. Bearded ladies, two-headed lambs preserved in glass jars, flame eaters, and Siamese twins were just some of the delights awaiting those brave enough to enter that canvas door.

Oh, how I wish my State Fair had a seedy underbelly! I long to paint some of my freakish fair memories to balance the sweetness, but alas, today’s fair is PC and family-friendly. The freakiest it gets is the PG-rated version of the Indianapolis-based Blue Monkey Sideshow. In an adult setting you might see these guys swing paint cans from their nipples, but at the fair it’s all about the classics, like sword swallowing, juggling, and bed of nails. Child-friendly, but when Swami B’Mon lays his shaven head in broken glass, or Freakshow Foley swallows a long curvy sword that moves his Adam’s apple, it’s still enough to make most people cringe. It’s a great show and if you ever get a chance to see them, do… if you dare.

Just for kicks, I plugged, “No arms, no legs, no bones in her body” into Google to see if anyone else shares my freak show memory. My jaw dropped when I found an actual sample of the recording in a video by Combichrist. OMG, this is it, exactly as I remembered it! Here’s the video, if you care to listen:

Time-lapse movie, Indiana State Fair 2010

Lesley Spanos — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:05:52 +0000

From the bedroom, my husband yelled, “You’ve got to see this! It’s the State Fair!” I rushed into the room to see one of my favorite spots at the Indiana State Fair featured full-screen on CNN:

Wow! I can’t count how many hours over the last four years I’ve hung out by that carousel with my camera. This is the carousel inspired my State Fair series. I have the horses memorized and notice when they’re in a different order from year to year. It’s possible I’m standing there somewhere in that crowd, seeing paintings in my mind and trying to capture them with the camera. See how a section of lights on the upper facade of the carousel is not working? It drove me nuts trying to shoot around that.

Kudos to Youtube user dond693, who shot this movie over a period of almost two hours, making an exposure with his Nikon still camera every 12 seconds.

Carousel at the Indiana State Fair, 2010. Photograph by Lesley Spanos.

Bronc Rider

Lesley Spanos — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:04:54 +0000

The State Fair allows us to travel to other times, other places, offering glimpses of worlds we don’t often see. In the rodeo we see what life on a ranch in the old West might have been like, if we can look past modern equipment like flak jackets designed to protect a cowboy’s ribs and neck.

Here, bareback bronc rider Josh Cragar awaits his turn at the 2010 Hoosier Rodeo Series finals at the Indiana State Fair.

Indiana State Fair Begins

Lesley Spanos — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:58:06 +0000

Just where do you put your hand when posing with a half-naked athlete? The Tochigi Sumo Wrestlers with the lovely Indiana State Fair Queen, Denae Pyle. Photo by Lesley Spanos.

My local fair, the Indiana State Fair, opened its gates Friday, August 6th for a 17 day run. I consider myself very lucky to have the 5th largest State Fair in the US nearby.

There’s artistic inspiration everywhere I go on the fairgrounds! It’s almost overwhelming. I’ve been running around like a madwoman, excited by all the potential paintings I see. I snap photos everywhere so I’ll have them as references later in the studio.

Even though I’ve been shooting for this series of paintings for three years now, there are still subjects I’ve missed in past years, so I carry a list of things I still need to add to my series. It’s sort of like a treasure hunt as I search the fair for the subjects I need to shoot. Sunday I was able to cross fried butter booth, fried Twinkie booth, cheese sculptor, Jeeps, and Fair Queen off my list. The Fair Queen was just a lucky accident. I walked into the international pavillion, and there she was, posing with some Sumo wrestlers.

The problem with all this photographic research is that it leaves me very little time to paint. But rest assured, I will be painting like a demon once my fair is over. I am very pleased with how the series is going, and might extend it into the winter months.

Enjoy your Fair, wherever you may be!