Looking at the animals is always a highlight of the State Fair. But some of this year's most memorable cows, chickens and horses aren't straight from the farm — they are art projects from Triangle high schools.
The "Farm Animal Frenzy" competition pitted high school art students from Wake and Durham counties to see who could decorate the best barnyard beast.
Apex High School's "Murial, the Dairy Queen," above, took home first place and the
$1,000 grand prize.
"Javier at the Fair," a chicken decorated by Fuquay-Varina High students, won second place and $750 cash. "Ms. Moo," a cow designed by Sanderson High in Raleigh, won third place and $500. Both are shown below.
Fair judges also selected "Corny Carney Carl" by Wakefield High, "Playin' Hooky" by Garner High and an unnamed horse by N.C. School of Math and Science students as honorable mentions.
Thad Ogburn is The N&O's Metro Editor, overseeing most local news reporting. His previous jobs have included editor of North Raleigh News and Features Editor, during which he learned that comics attract more reader response than just about anything else we do. His guilty pleasure is reality TV, which he finds not very real at all. That's assuming, of course, there is room on his DVR amid his daughter's "iCarly" episodes and his wife's daily installments of "One Life To Live."
