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Community Corner

Eagan Woman Snags 40 State Fair Ribbons in 18 Years

This year, Eagan's Lois Maag won six blue ribbons.

Entering her art in the Minnesota State Fair seemed just natural for Lois Maag.

She's an art school graduate who has worked professionally as an artist and an animator. She started creating stained glass art about 30 years ago.

“I love going to the fair,” the Eagan artist said. “I saw some of the entries and thought, 'I could do this.’"

It turns out she was right. After her first entry, a stained glass piece, won a second-place ribbon, Maag was hooked.

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“It was a real thrill,” she said.

That was in 1993, and she’s entered the State Fair – and won ribbons – every year since. Along with stained glass, Maag’s entries have included batik (she’s been doing the dye-resistant fabric painting nearly as long as her stained glass) and more recently, scrapbooking.

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But the State Fair wasn’t Maag’s first venture into competition. “I’d entered pastels at the Dakota County Fair, and photography contests in Dakota County. I won lots of (first-place awards) for my photography, 40-45 years ago,” Maag said. 

Maag’s inspirations vary, she said. She usually starts thinking about what she wants to enter shortly after the fair ends; the long winter is a good time to make art. One scrapbook took its inspiration from the Fair itself: “I did a scrapbook on State Fair food booths. That was a project last winter,” Maag said. (It won a first-place ribbon this year.)

All of Maag’s designs are originals; she draws them herself and makes her own patterned. Although she professes not to have a favorite, one of this year’s entries might come close.

“I saw a painting of three white horses in an antique store 15-20 years ago,” Maag said. Later she started searching for the painting. “I kept trying to find it. Last year I found it on the Internet. The name is ‘Pharoah’s Horses.’ I modified it because everything I do is original.” The piece won a blue first-place ribbon at this year’s State Fair.

Eagan resident Dee Dee Braun is a long-time friend and former neighbor of Maag’s. Braun’s husband, Jerry, has constructed many of the frames for Maag’s stained glass. But Braun has never gone to the State Fair with Maag. “I couldn’t keep up with her,” she said.

This year, Maag entered seven pieces. She won six first-place ribbons and one fourth-place ribbon.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “It’s very fulfilling, I worked very hard on the pieces.”

Braun asked Maag recently if she was every going to slow down.

“Lois said, ‘No, I don’t think so,’” Braun reported. “She’s just that kind of person, she has to keep busy.”

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