Artist retires after spending 50 years making butter sculptures at the Minnesota State Fair

Armed with her trusty knife Old Faithful, Linda Christensen has spent the last 50 summers turning 90-pound blocks of butter into sculptures, putting on a show year after year in the Minnesota State Fair's dairy building.

These carvings — called "butter heads" — depict the fair's goodwill ambassador, Princess Kay of the Milky Way, and her royal court. The tradition dates back decades, and since 1972, Christensen has created more than 500 butter heads. She carves them inside a 40-degree booth, with her model sitting down next to her. "As goofy as it is — and it is goofy — it still really fulfills something for me," Christensen told CBS News.

Christensen, 79, said she got the job because the man doing it at the time "couldn't stand the cold" and quit. She's learned lots of tricks over the years, like only using salted butter, as the unsalted kind is gummy and sticks to Old Faithful. Many former princesses come back to visit Christensen in her booth and let her know they saved their butter head by sticking it in a freezer.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The 40-degree booth is now too chilly for Christensen, making it hard for her to carve the butter heads. She decided to make 2021 her final year, and passed her butter knife on to the next sculptor, artist Gerry Kulzer. Christensen told CBS News she feels "mixed emotions" about retiring. "I have looked forward to this every year for the last 50 years," she said, "but on the other hand, I've made it 50 years. That's something to celebrate."

Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.