Teacher Wins Blue Ribbon With 140-Hour Labyrinth Art

After 140 hours of careful work with seeds and unconventional materials, Kori Brown walked into the Minnesota State Fair's Horticulture Building and saw exactly what she'd been hoping for. Her crop art depicting the beloved movie "Labyrinth" wore a Blue Ribbon.

Brown teaches visual arts at Birch Grove School for the Arts in Brooklyn Park. This marked her third year entering the State Fair's crop art competition, and after placing fourth last year, she decided to think bigger.

The piece celebrates the 40th anniversary of the 1986 musical fantasy film featuring David Bowie and Jim Henson's puppets. Brown chose the movie because it was a childhood favorite, bringing personal meaning to every painstaking detail.

She crafted the artwork using a variety of seeds, but didn't stop there. Brown added corn silk and onion skin to capture the magic of the film, materials not typically seen in crop art. She tracked her hours by counting the audiobooks she finished while working.

On opening day of the fair, Brown's excitement was palpable. "I was just the most ecstatic, and I was so excited. It was a major goal of mine to win a Blue Ribbon at the State Fair in seed art, because it's just such a popular thing," she said. "So, goal accomplished!"

Sunny's Take

Brown's dedication outside the classroom mirrors the passion she brings to her students. In her 17 years of teaching, she's helped several students submit their own artwork to the State Fair, with some even placing in other categories over the past few years.

The meticulous nature of crop art gives Brown something precious in a busy teacher's life: meditation and reconnection with the art she teaches daily. Each seed placed becomes a small act of mindfulness, a way to remember why she fell in love with creating in the first place.

Brown plans to keep submitting crop art in future years. For now, though, she's savoring a goal achieved and a childhood love transformed into blue ribbon success.