{image1}After a successful cheese carving event this past spring, OnMilwaukee.com is once again "Cutting the Cheese for Charity," this time in a partnership with the Wisconsin State Fair.
Every day at the fair, a Milwaukee artist sculpts cheese live in the Ag Oasis Tent from 11 a.m. until, roughly, 3 p.m.
"The carvings look awesome and are drawing quite a bit of attention," says Eliza Ulness, Ag Oasis coordinator.
Sculptures are carved from 40-pound blocks of medium cheddar cheese and artists are able to use whatever tools they need to create their cheesy masterpieces. The only stipulation is the subject matter must be State Fair-related, hence a rooster, ear of corn, barn, sheep and, of course, cream puff are already on display.
{image2}Riverwest's Jessica Laub is one of the artists "cutting the cheese" at the State Fair.
"I enjoy the meditative quality of being immersed in carving for up to six hours in a row. It sucks you in. You become obsessed with it," says Laub, 35, whose usual artistic medium is painting and pottery.
Thousands of fair goers have already stopped by the booth to observe live cheese carving and to donate a few dollars to America's Second Harvest food pantry. The first sculpture was auctioned off at the Governors Sweepstakes cheese and butter auction, raising $650 for the Dairy Promotion Board Scholarship.
This is the first time the Wisconsin State Fair features live, daily cheese carving, however, a few years back, a local artist carved a large-scale cheese sculpture of Alice in Dairyland.
"It is very exciting to see the form emerge from imagination to reality," says Laub. "The cheese is a pleasure to carve."
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
