One of the things I miss the most about living in Minneapolis is the Minnesota State Fair. Where else can you find cheese curds, dairy cows, hand-carved butter effigies of beauty queens, and seed-mosaic portraits of Farrah Fawcett, right in the middle of a major city? Since in my mind you can’t really top that, I wasn’t planning to visit the Puyallup Fair—this region’s answer to The Great Minnesota Get Together—this year. That is, until I learned that there would be a Charley Harper exhibit there.

Yes, that’s right. Thirty-six originals by one of my favorite illustrators artists, next door to that thing about Weird Al’s brain and the booth hawking teriyaki doughnut pies—or whatever—on a stick.

The exhibit was a little hard to find, tucked away on the second floor of the pavilion building, amongst the 4-H entries, prize-winning quilts and glass cases of semi-mummified, weirdly archaeological cross-sections of blue-ribbon baked goods and Spam-dinner specimens (I kid you not). And to send the whole experience completely over the top, the artwork was displayed on the kind of faux-wood paneling found in every 1970s-remodeled, Midwestern finished basement. Definitely a change from your average trip to the museum.

But you know what? That made the experience so much better. For one thing, I can’t exactly imagine Harper’s work adorning the walls of the National Gallery or the Met (not that they’d let him in; he’s an illustrator, remember?)—his punny titles and down-to-earth sensibilities would seem out of place there, despite the level of sophistication in his design. For another, the kitschy atmosphere was a perfect, unwitting match for Harper’s retro style, and  just heightened his sense of tongue-in-cheek humor; I think he would have approved (especially of the wood paneling).

There are so many things to love about Charley Harper. Not only are his pieces completely timeless (a classic never goes out of style, after all), but his images are dead on (just like Andrew Wyeth, though in his own, completely different way). Every line, shape, and color is carefully considered, and nothing is accidental. Harper was able to distill all of nature into simple, geometric shapes, and yet everything is still immediately recognizable, and absolutely perfect. The precision of his design sense is closer to architecture than illustration, but his images convey so much warmth you can’t help but smile.

So if you’re local, get into the cheese-curd spirit, head down to The Big Fantastic, and check out the exhibit, which runs through Sunday. If you’re not, visit your local library or snuggle up to Google Images and spend an hour with Charley Harper. He’ll make your day, I guarantee it.