One unusual display at the fair consists of the entrants in the crop art competition. The artwork must be made of plant matter (seeds, stems, flowers, fruit, etc.) suitable for growing in Minnesota. For decades the display was dominated by Owatonna native Lillian Colton (1912–2007), who created seed portraits, professionally, having effectively captured scores of celebrities such as Ernest Hemingway, Barbra Streisand, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prince, Princess Diana, and Willie Nelson in her crop art. After winning nine purple ribbons, she stopped competing, but continued displaying her work at the fair.